Pexip, known for scalable, distributed collaboration software, announced that Åsmund O. Fodstad, formerly EVP of global sales and marketing at the company, has been appointed CEO. Co-founder and former CEO Simen Teigre will join the company’s board of directors and, through a transition period, serve as special advisor to the CEO.
Fodstad joined Pexip in April 2013 and has been EVP of global sales and marketing since January 2014. Prior to joining Pexip, he had 20 years of leadership experience working at companies such as Tandberg, REC, and projectiondesign, and as general manager for SuperOffice. Fodstad has extensive experience building global sales, marketing, and distribution networks. Based in Hong Kong, he developed Tandberg’s APAC business and led REC’s global sales beyond a billion dollars. In his New York-based sales leadership role at Pexip, he built a high-performing global sales operation and delivered strong commercial results for the company.
Since the incorporation of Pexip in April 2012, the company has experienced explosive growth and adoption of its innovative collaboration software in the global market. Fortune 500 companies across every vertical, leading education institutions, and public organizations have embraced the Pexip Infinity solution at record speed. Pexip customers are now using the Pexip Infinity platform at a rate of 100 million minutes annually, double the amount from just six months ago.
“It has been an incredible journey with the Pexip team over the past three-and-a-half years, building Pexip from the ground up to become a global disruptor in collaboration software,” said Teigre. “But being CEO of a high-tech startup is like running a sprint where the distance is a marathon — the race is thus best run as a relay. As CEO, I believe the time is now right to pass on the leadership baton.”
Pexip’s award-winning Infinity platform allows organizations to offer video, audio, and Web-based collaboration solutions to every employee via existing IT and cloud infrastructures. Built on a purely software-based and hugely scalable architecture, the platform is quick and easy to install, deploy, operate, and manage, allowing customers to capitalize on their existing investments, to create truly seamless virtual collaboration environments.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More