Groupon said Wednesday (June 3) that Rich Williams will become the company’s chief operating officer and also that its CFO, Jason Child, would depart the company next month to take on the same role at Jawbone, a consumer technology company.
Williams, whose Groupon tenure dates to 2011, has served as Groupon’s president of North American operations and maintain that role even as he becomes COO. Brian Kayman, VP of Tax and Treasury at the company, will now become interim CFO.
As might be viewed as par for the course when publicly traded companies announce management shakeups, Groupon also said it would boost its stock buyback program by $200 million to $500 million, That tally would represent 12 percent of the current market cap. The repurchase takes effect immediately and will run through summer 2017.
In addition, the company reaffirmed its target for financial performance, with a revenue range of $700 million to $750 million for the current quarter and adjusted net income of a penny to three cents per share. The Street is at $739 million for the top line and three cents on the bottom.
TechCrunch noted Wednesday that the chief operating office role has been open since the previous COO, Kal Rama, moved within Groupon’s ranks to take a post in Asia, and then eventually left the company.
Child had filled the CFO role since 2010 and had previously been at Amazon, said TechCrunch, and had been through tumultuous periods including the Groupon IPO and stock slide, the resignation of Andrew Mason as CEO (and who had also been a co-founder) and restructured operations.
TechCrunch reported that Williams’ assumption of the COO mantle while continuing to lead the North America unit shows that “North America [is] very much the focus and bedrock of how [Groupon] plans its future strategy and future products.”
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