With a nod to the Valley, CBS Interactive shuffles management

CBS Interactive, the media giant's digital division, has announced the opening of a Silicon Valley office and an executive reshuffling to focus on growth, President Quincy Smith announced Thursday.

The CBS Interactive satellite office in Menlo Park, Calif., has opened, with its eye on tech partnerships and acquisitions. The Valley branch will "allow the company to better facilitate existing partnerships in the area, and future ones as well," a release from CBS explained.

Smith is himself a Valley veteran, with a mergers-and-acquisitions background that involved the sale of Delicious to Yahoo, and Netscape to AOL. CBS hired him after his stint at investment bank Allen & Co.

CBS Interactive encompasses CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSNews.com, the CBS Audience Network video syndication service, the CBS EyeLab site, a number of mobile properties, and digital-media acquisitions like music service Last.fm and video series Wallstrip (along with its sibling show, Moblogic.tv, which launched after the CBS acquisition).

In conjunction with the new Valley digs, CBS Interactive restructured its management: Bryon Rubin, formerly a senior executive in CBS's corporate development and mergers and acquisitions group, will become CBS Interactive's chief financial officer; Yahoo veteran Michael Marquez has been promoted to executive vice president of strategy and corporate development; and a number of senior employees have been named general managers.

Anthony Soohoo, who joined CBS Interactive when it acquired celebrity gossip site Dotspotter, will oversee CBS Interactive's entertainment unit--the Audience Network, Wallstrip and Moblogic, CBS.com, and forthcoming original programming ventures. CBSSports.com's Jason Kint will also manage CBSNews.com, Jeff Sellinger will remain at the helm of CBS Interactive's mobile operations, and Last.fm's founding team will remain intact.