Local Corporation Appoints Fred Thiel as CEO
May 07 2014 - 5:20PM
Business Wire
Norm Farra to resume role as lead director of
the Board of Directors
Local Corporation (NASDAQ:LOCM), a leading local advertising
technology company, today announced that Fred Thiel, Local
Corporation’s chairman of the board, has been named chief executive
officer of the company, effective immediately.
The appointment of Thiel, a seasoned technology executive with
extensive experience with both public and start-up and early stage
companies, demonstrates the company’s commitment to delivering
breakthrough technologies that reinvent the way consumers interact
with digital advertising . The company also announced that,
effective immediately, the position of president and chief
operations officer would be eliminated to further streamline
operations and Michael Sawtell will be leaving the company.
“I am excited to lead such a talented team of forward-thinking
individuals in our pursuit of providing local advertising
technology solutions that make it easier for consumers to find the
products and services they need and for advertisers to reach those
consumers at precisely the right time across multiple channels,”
said Thiel, Local Corporation chairman and chief executive officer.
“Our best-in-class Krillion technology platform, combined with over
a decade of experience in providing local advertising solutions and
a robust intellectual property portfolio position us to lead at the
crossroads of the digital advertising industry.”
“Local Corporation is uniquely positioned to deliver local
advertising products and services that benefit consumers,
retailers, advertisers and manufacturers alike. With focus and
execution, I believe we can transform this company into a
world-class local advertising technology company,” added Thiel.
Thiel joined Local as a board member in 2013 and became its
chairman in January of this year. Prior to Local, Thiel served as
the managing partner of the Software IT Group at Triton Pacific
Capital Partners, a private equity firm that makes equity
investments on its behalf and its investors in lower middle
market companies, from January 2007 until the end of 2012. As part
of his role at Triton Pacific Capital Partners, Thiel served on the
boards of four of its portfolio companies: Custom Credit Systems,
LP, an enterprise software company providing commercial lending
automation solutions to major banks; DB Technology, LLC, an
enterprise content management software company providing solutions
to healthcare providers; Assetpoint, LLC, an enterprise software
company providing enterprise asset management solutions to major
corporations; and Vayan Marketing Group, LLC, an internet media
marketing company providing customer acquisition services to major
consumer brands.
Thiel has been a senior advisor to Graham Partners, a mid-market
private equity firm since 2008. From January 2004 to December 2006,
He was founder and managing partner of TechStarter Ventures, a
venture capital and technology incubator focused on developing Web
2.0 technologies and social media, human resources and project
management related web properties. Prior to TechStarter, Thiel was
CEO of GameSpy Industries from January 2002 through January 2003.
While chairman and CEO for Lantronix, Thiel led a repositioning,
doubled the company’s revenue growth in four years, led four
acquisitions and the initial public and secondary offerings. Thiel
is presently a director of two private companies: Predixion
Software, Inc., and B&B Electronics, Inc. Thiel attended
classes at the Stockholm School of Economics in Europe.
“After evaluating both internal and external candidates, the
board is pleased to name Fred as CEO. The board was extremely
impressed with his diverse experience and his ability to quickly
set a compelling vision for the company and make that vision
palpable both internally and to the investment community. We expect
that this next year will be punctuated by many successes under
Fred’s leadership,” said Norm Farra, who will be resuming his role
as lead director of the board of directors. “As part of the desire
to flatten the organization, the position of president and COO has
been eliminated and Mike Sawtell will be leaving Local effective
immediately. The board appreciates Mike's efforts over the
years.”
In connection with his appointment as CEO, Thiel has resigned
his positions on the Audit Committee, Nominating and Corporate
Governance Committee, and the Compensation Committee of the Board
of Directors. He will remain chairman of the board. The company
will move quickly to nominate a new independent director to regain
compliance with applicable listing standards.
About Local Corporation
Local Corporation (NASDAQ:LOCM) is a leading local advertising
technology company that connects millions of online and mobile
consumers with businesses and products through a variety of
innovative digital advertising solutions. The company’s patented
Krillion® local shopping platform aggregates, localizes and
distributes dynamic, national and regional retail shopping content,
from approximately 120,000 store locations, representing nearly 3
million localized products. For more information, visit:
http://www.localcorporation.com or http://www.krillion.com. To
download the company’s iOS® 7-compatible Havvit™ shopping app, go
to: iTunes® (http://bit.ly/1d8Y111).
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
that are based upon current expectations and involve certain risks
and uncertainties within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words or expressions such as
"anticipate," "plan," "will," "intend," "believe" or "expect" or
variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to
identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
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beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in
the forward-looking statements. Key risks are described in the
filings we make with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the
date they are made. We undertake no obligation to revise or update
publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason. Unless
otherwise stated, all site traffic and usage statistics are from
third-party service providers engaged by the company. Traffic and
our monetization of that traffic combine to determine our revenues
for any given period. Our traffic volume alone for a period should
not be viewed as demonstrative of our financial results for such
period.
Investor Relations Contact:LHAKirsten Chapman,
415-433-3777local@lhai.comorMedia Relations Contact:Local
CorporationCameron Triebwasser,
949-789-5223ctriebwasser@local.com
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