Rivals.com Founder & CEO Shannon Terry Leaving The Company
By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal
 |
Terry Will Carry One-Year Non-Compete
Clause, Then Intends to Return To Industry |
Rivals.com Founder & CEO SHANNON TERRY is leaving the company, effective today. Terry, who built the popular college recruiting hub out of the assets of bankrupt predecessor company Rival Networks and later led the much-discussed '07 sale of the company to Yahoo for $98M, characterized the parting as highly amicable. Terry: "The Yahoo people have been absolutely great. I couldn't ask for more, but I'm a builder by nature, and I need to be in a place where I can thrive in that fashion. And the timing is good to do this. The reach and the strength of the Rivals brand has never been better." Industry sources said Terry will carry a one-year non-compete clause, and that following that, he intends to return to digital sports media in some fashion. Terry at various points had been offered more senior executive roles with Yahoo, but he had no interest in moving from Rivals.com's suburban Nashville base to the West Coast. Terry last year became the first dot-com exec to be named a HOFer in SportsBusiness Journal's annual Forty Under 40 list. Yahoo Sports & Entertainment head JIMMY PITARO said, “Shannon did everything we asked of him and then some. I would have loved to have helped him move forward in the Yahoo organization, but doing that didn’t make sense from Nashville. He would have had to move to Sunnyvale or Santa Monica. He didn’t want to do that, and I totally understand. But Rivals remains a big priority for us going forward.” With Pitaro’s duties recently expanded to include all of Yahoo’s audience experience business, he plans to hire later this spring a deputy to help manage the portal’s sports properties. That hire’s responsibilities will include the business oversight of Rivals.com. BOBBY BURTON, Rivals.com COO, remains with the company in an expanded role that includes a focus on revenue growth.
|
