The latest news about Project Kangaroo broke early today all over the web: Ashley Highfield, the CEO of Kangaroo, quit in a dramatic and surprising turn. Kangaroo has been under scrutiny in the last few weeks as it poses a great threat to competition. Concern over the size and power of a platform like Kangaroo (whose real name is rumored to be “see-saw”) has caused an in-depth investigation from the U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading. The concern is that when Kangaroo launches it will be “too powerful” and, according to paidcontent “that it will unfairly impact wholesale, consumer and advertising prices.” It is good criticism since the service will include content from BBC Worldwide, ITV.com and Channel 4’s 4oD. (For more on the Kangaroo investigation see our recent article).
Highfield has been replaced with an interim replacement, Rod Henwood, who was C4’s newest business director. Kangaroo released this statement in the last hour regarding the issue:
“BBC Worldwide, ITV (LSE: ITV) and Channel 4 confirm that Ashley Highfield is standing down as Chief Executive Officer of Project Kangaroo. The shareholders would like to thank Ashley for all his hard work and dedication to the venture. As of today, Rod Henwood has been appointed interim Chief Executive Officer, supported by Mark Kortekaas as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Christine Mullin as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and he and the shareholders are now actively recruiting a new CEO.
“Rod Henwood is currently lead regulatory adviser at Project Kangaroo and was previously New Business Director of Channel 4. His senior team will include Mark Kortekaas as CTO and Christine Mullin as CFO. Mark was previously Senior Vice President and CTO for CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS) in the United States and Christine Mullin recently worked in private equity and was previously Finance Director of AOL (NYSE: TWX) UK.
“Ben McOwen Wilson, Chairman of the Joint Venture said: ‘We would like to thank Ashley for leading Project Kangaroo through a crucial stage in its development, and we wish him well for the future. In Rod, Mark and Christine we are confident that we have a management team of strength and depth that can deliver an outstanding product for UK consumers and advertisers and will continue the ongoing priority of working with the Competition Commission through its process.’
“Ashley Highfield said: ‘It has been a great pleasure and challenge to take Project Kangaroo to the next stage of its journey. It is something I believe passionately in and I will remain a great ambassador for the project from afar as it continues on the road to become a brilliant proposition for consumers in this exciting market. However I was presented with an amazing opportunity which I couldn’t turn down, and I am looking forward to embarking on my new challenge, while wishing everyone at the project continued success.’”
Kangaroo was set to launch later this year, but the launch date was pushed back to early 2009. The investigations of the scope and power of the platform are ongoing, despite the Kangaroo team’s best efforts to lay the issue to rest.
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February 4th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
[...] at Kangaroo knew the future was bleak. A string of high profile moves were announced since August (Ashley Highfield quit as Kangaroo CEO in November and Patrick Ugeux’s departure as the Director of the Project in [...]