After onstage spat, Offerpal replaces CEO
Offerpal Media, a company that helps social-network app creators make money from offers and surveys, on Tuesday announced that it had replaced its CEO in the wake of a high-profile onstage argument at a conference and subsequent press over whether it's scamming consumers who fill out offers in order to earn virtual goods in social games.
Anu Shukla, who founded the company and had been serving as CEO since its 2007 launch, will be replaced by George Garrick, who has served as the CEO of Flycast Communications, Wine.com, Jingle Networks, and Mochi Media. Shukla "will still be involved and help guide the company," an Offerpal representative told CNET News.
A statement from Shukla makes it sound like the company's been CEO-hunting for months ("I have known George for a long time...After many months of searching, I believe that George is the best CEO to scale the company to new heights. I am looking forward to working with him closely"). But the timing is a little too good to be coincidental: a firestorm erupted over Offerpal and other companies in its niche after TechCrunch's Michael Arrington confronted Shukla while she was on a panel at the Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco last month. Arrington accused Shukla of running a scam operation that tricks consumers into unwittingly spending money--and of course, he then blogged about it.
Shukla's response to Arrington was "sh*t, double sh*t, and bullsh*t."
But the industry has taken the controversy seriously. Social game makers like the massive Zynga have come out and said that they would ban potentially shady and misleading offers, even though those might make up a sizeable chunk of revenue, and on Tuesday social network MySpace joined the debate and said that it had modified its terms of service to outlaw "app scams."
Shukla was interviewed by VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi in a lengthy article published on Tuesday.
This post was expanded at 4:55 p.m. PT.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
What the fudge kind of response is that, is a transcript floating around out there or better yet a video?
probably made that summit something to remember.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PhKRCkbX9A&feature=youtube_gdata
- by Livermorebrianc November 6, 2009 9:42 AM PST
- If you haven't read the TechCrunch blog that outlines the details of the scam and the You Tube video of Shukla's response (yes, she does actually say that expletive filled tirade) you really should.
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(5 Comments)This is great news for consumers and members of social networking sites everwhere. Too many companies are allowed to continue to steal money from consumers and hide behind the justifcation in the "small print".