San Francisco — Ask.com, a unit of Internet business company InterActiveCorp., on Tuesday said that its Chief Executive Office, Jim Safka, has suddenly decided to step down from his position with the company due to personal reasons, after serving the company for 18 months, according to reports from Wall Street Journal.
The current President of Ask.com Scott Garell would take over Safka’s duties, with Garell’s title changing to president of Ask Networks.
Safka has joined the company last January, replacing Jim Lanzone right in the midst of parent company IAC’s massive restructuring.
In a letter to the Ask staff, Safka said:
“This choice was not made lightly … When my brother John passed away unexpectedly less than a month ago, I began re-evaluating my personal and professional priorities and decided it was the right time for me to make a change … And whatever I do next will be smaller and more local, enabling me to have a better personal balance.”
In an internal e-mail, IAC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Barry Diller stated: “Jim has showed tremendous leadership during his tenure at IAC, first at Match.com and most recently at Ask.com, where he helped the Ask Network become the 6th largest in the U.S. and created the foundation for a new growth strategy that is showing early positive traction. We thank him for his many contributions and wish the absolute best for him and his family moving forward.”
“Jim has decided to move on from Ask.com, following the recent passing of his brother which has led him to re-evaluate his personal and professional priorities. We wish him the very best and thank him for his efforts at Ask.com,” Ask spokeswoman Mary Osako said in a statement. “Ask will be led by Scott Garell, who has been promoted to President of Ask Networks, who has already been principally involved every day with the global business over the past 18 months as President of Ask.com.”
According to reports from Wall Street Journal, Safka is going to become the CEO of online textbook rental company Chegg. This information comes from “a person familiar with the matter.”
Safka has been handling Ask.com’s global operations and has also held the title of CEO of Primal Ventures, a new-venture entity that identifies seeds and incubates business opportunities for Ask.com’s parent company IAC.
Prior to joining IAC, Safka served as chief executive officer of Match.com, a position he held since September 2004. Safka came to Match.com from AT&T Wireless, where he served as vice president and general manager of e-commerce. Before joining AT&T Wireless in 2002, he held positions with E*Trade, Intuit, Warner Bros, and Paramount.
Following a management restructuring in January 2008, Safka was named chief executive officer of Ask.com.
Safka’s departure comes as Ask.com’s severely facing an uphill battle to claim more than a sliver of search market share, Safka’s 16-month stint as CEO was probably anything but balanced. As of March, Ask had 2.1 percent of the U.S. search market, as compared to 10 percent for Microsoft, 15 percent for Yahoo and 64 percent for Google, according to Nielsen Online.
Safka’s departure was reported earlier on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal.