Criteo, An IPO-Track Ad Network Eyed By - Business Insider

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Rich Riley at Internet Week

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Two sources tell us that Criteo, a French-American online-advertising company, is close to hiring Rich Riley as CEO.

We asked Riley and Criteo for comment.

"I can't comment on any of the opportunities that I am pursuing or if Criteo is one of them, but would be happy to discuss if/when?something is finalized," Riley told us.

"We don't comment on rumor and speculation," a Criteo spokesperson told us.

Riley was most recently a top advertising executive at Yahoo, running sales in the Americas region. He announced his departure in June after 13 years at the company.

This hire, if it goes through, will be interesting for several reasons.

One is that Criteo is a key player in the retargeting business, where ads essentially follow users around the Web based on past visits to online stores or other websites. It did an estimated $400 million in revenues in 2012, and may try to go public this year.?

Hiring Riley, who has far deeper advertising experience than Criteo founder Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, would be a key step towards an IPO.

The other is the Yahoo connection.

Criteo already provides retargeting services for Yahoo and Yahoo Japan, an independent company in which Yahoo holds a large stake.

We had heard that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was considering whether to persuade him to return?and become COO before she picked Henrique de Castro for that job.

And we've also heard that Criteo is one of the companies Mayer has considered buying to bolster Yahoo's advertising technology. (Another former Yahoo executive, Greg Coleman, is Criteo's president.)

So by hiring Riley, Criteo would simultaneously make itself more valuable to public investors, with a reassuringly experienced and well-connected CEO?and to Yahoo as an acquisition.

Smart move?if Criteo and Riley do it!

Here's Riley talking about Yahoo's new Genome, a data-driven product for targeting audiences, last May.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/criteo-hires-rich-riley-as-ceo-2013-3

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