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Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 13 Oct 2004 23:36 |
Newly appointed President of Yahoo! Europe says that mobile services will be a key revenue driver
As President of Yahoo! Europe, Pierre Chappaz, 45, (pictured) will lead the European operations of Yahoo! and Kelkoo, which Chappaz co-founded and which was acquired by Yahoo! Inc. earlier this year. Chappaz will report to John Marcom, SVP of International Operations, Yahoo! Inc.
Dominique Vidal, 40, becomes Yahoo! Europe Chief Operating Officer reporting to Chappaz.
Chappaz will lead the company's product, marketing and technology initiatives across the region, while Vidal will oversee day-to-day operations in the ten European territories in which Yahoo! and Kelkoo operate. Overture will continue operating under its current management structure in Europe.
Chappaz and Vidal join Yahoo! Europe from shopping search engine Kelkoo, which Yahoo! Inc., acquired in April 2004 for for an aggregate purchase price of $575 Million (Euro 475 Million).
Chappaz was the founder and CEO of Kelkoo, which he established in 1999 and now operates in ten European countries, and is used by one out of ten European internet users.
Moving To Mobile
Vidal was most recently Group Managing Director of Kelkoo, where he conducted the successful expansion of the company in the UK and Northern Europe. Prior to this he headed up the IT department at Banexi Ventures and also spent 10 years at Schlumberger within both the USA and France, focusing on M&A and strategic ventures.
It is interesting to note that Banexi Ventures provided early stage funding for Kelkoo and includes mobile games company In-Fusio in its investment portfolio.
Chappaz told Reuters that he views the company's push into mobile-phone service offerings, such as SMS-based e-mail and search listings, as a key future generator of revenue.
"Expanding into mobile services is one of my personal focuses in Europe," Chappaz said, adding that a variety of services developed for Yahoo's popular internet search engine could be adapted for mobile phones particularly as more advanced handsets come on the market.
The news of Yahoo!'s interest in mobile follows Google's announcement of SMS services in the USA and launch of a UK version of its shopping service Froogle.
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