Rivals.com announced MARK SHUKEN as its new President.
Shuken will lead the company's growth, as former CEO J.C.
HECKMAN has left the company. Rivals.com Exec VP SAUL
GAMORAN will serve as interim CEO. Shuken has more than 15
years of experience in sports media and has served as VP of
Cablevision and was GM of Fox Sports NY (Rivals.com). In
Seattle, Roger Yu reports that the "fragile state of the
dot-coms was underscored" as Heckman "abruptly left the
company he founded two years ago." Heckman owned about
19.2% of the company when Rivals.com filed in March for an
IPO. In its statement, Rivals.com "did not elaborate" on
why Heckman was also giving up his membership on the
company's board. Gamoran said the board did not vote on
Heckman's resignation, submitted Monday night. Rivals.com
"had a little over" $1M in sales in '99, but it lost $21.4M,
and Gamoran declined to comment on the state of Rivals.com's
current financial situation. But Yu notes that "at an
average annual salary of $40,000 an employee, Rivals would
spend about $7.2M on salaries alone this year, even if it
implemented a hiring freeze" (SEATTLE TIMES, 6/21). Also in
Seattle, John Cook notes that a "choppy IPO market" has kept
Rivals.com's offering "sidelined." But Gamoran said that
the company "continues to grow and is sound" financially:
"It's not that we are just in solid financial shape. But
our investor group (is) very solid and they understand that
we are a growth company" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 6/21).