Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Here Comes the Video Shakeout: Joost Scales Down, CEO Mike Volpi Steps Out
Here’s the beginning of the inevitable online video shakeout: Joost, the once-hyped video service that was supposed to rival Google’s YouTube, is restructuring to focus on “white label” services, i.e., a back end for other video players.
The site is laying off the majority of its 100-plus employees, and CEO Mike Volpi is out, replaced by Matt Zelesko, who had been SVP of engineering.



Here’s the other shoe that hadn’t dropped following Tim Armstrong’s move from Google to run Time Warner’s AOL. Omid Kordestani, who was the official head of Google’s sales, has been moved aside in favor of Nikesh Arora.
