Jim Lanzone, who ran Ask since April 06, is stepping down and figuring out what’s next while EIR at Redpoint. I’ll be talking to him later today, update here soon.
Jim Safka has been named CEO of Ask.com. Effective immediately, he will oversee Ask.com’s global operations. He will also continue in his role as CEO of Primal Ventures, a new-venture entity that identifies seeds and incubates business opportunities for IAC.
Mr. Safka, 39, served as CEO of Match.com from 2004 to 2006.
This represents a real loss for Ask. Jim was the heart and soul of what is left of the company. He was always their biggest cheerleader and a true believer even as few others are. This probably means that the suits at IAC (Diller et al.) are disappointed with their return on advertising investment. In retrospect, many of the ads were way off the mark and the whole series of campaigns seemed really desperate.
Without Jim, now they really are desperate.
Jim Lanzone failed – that’s a fact, Diller said as much yesterday.
Correct. Diller fired Lanzone for poor management and not paying attention to bottom line numbers. Jim was mostly a PR and features guy who was internally inefficient, disorganized and immature manager. Ask should do much better with pros like Safka and Garell.