The popular e-commerce site Groupon is losing a heavy weight after it was announced that senior mobile executive David Katz, who was the VP and GM of its consumer mobile, is leaving the firm. According to the latest update, Katz has decided to step down from his post by the end of next month and is going to accept a GM and SVP post at Fanatics, another commerce site that deals with sports apparel. Katz revealed the news to his colleagues and friends through an email, which TechCrunch got hold of through an anonymous tipster. Here it is:
“Dear Friends,
Just a quick note to let you know that I’m going to be leaving Groupon and joining Fanatics, Inc. as SVP and GM, Mobile.
And what you may ask is “Fanatics”? If you don’t know, Fanatics is a privately held e-commerce company that is the market leader in sports apparel (~$1B in annual revenue). Fanatics runs the online stores for the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, NCAA, major college conferences, major media properties like ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo and Sporting News and lots of individual pro and college teams. Basically, if you are a sports fan there’s a good chance you’ve already bought something from Fanatics.
So why am I’m making this switch? Well…
1) I get to work in sports, which is awesome
2) I think this is a strong team building a great, big business that is on the cusp of becoming enormous
3) I get to build a brand new mobile team and some cool product from scratch
In my new role I’m going to be setting up a new dev center in the Bay Area to build and market mobile apps and sites. I’m going to be building a new team – which is part of the appeal – so if you know great mobile developers, PMs, designers or marketers who love sports and m-commerce please send them my way.
I’ll be at Groupon through mid-August and moving over to Fanatics immediately after. I’ll send new work contact info when I have it but I’m always reachable at this email.
Thanks,
DK.”
On the other hand, Groupon also confirmed that it’s VP and GM of mobile, Katz is leaving the company, and it is looking for a suitable replacement:
Talking to TechCrunch, spokesperson of Groupon said that, “David is leaving Groupon at the end of the month to take another position. We’ve begun a search for a new leader of our Consumer Mobile division. Groupon has very deep and talented mobile team that will continue to report to our Senior Vice President of Product Development Jeff Holden, and we’re excited about the future for one of the fastest-growing Mobile operations in the industry.”
Source: TechCrunch
Photo: GMIC-SV
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