Jim Lanzone
James Lanzone | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 20, 1971 |
| Occupation(s) | Technology executive, investor |
| Known for | CEO of Yahoo Inc., CEO of Tinder, president and CEO of CBS Interactive |
James Lanzone (born January 20, 1971) is a prominent American executive currently serving as the CEO of Yahoo Inc.. His previous leadership roles include CEO of Tinder and president and CEO of CBS Interactive, a leading digital media company overseeing major platforms such as CBS All Access, CNET, GameSpot, CBS News, Metacritic, CBS Sports, 247 Sports, Scout Media, MaxPreps.com, TVGuide.com, and Last.fm. Lanzone assumed the presidency in March 2011, taking over from Neil Ashe, and was subsequently appointed as the inaugural chief digital officer for CBS Corporation.
Prior to his tenure at CBS Interactive, Lanzone founded and directed Clicker.com, a discovery and search platform specializing in Internet video and television content. The company attracted investment from notable backers including Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital, Geoff Yang of Redpoint Ventures, Allen & Company, Qualcomm Ventures, and Blake Krikorian, the Slingbox founder. Clicker debuted in beta at TechCrunch50 in September 2009 before being acquired by CBS Corporation in March 2011.
Education
Lanzone completed his undergraduate studies with a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1993. He also earned a combined JD/MBA degree from both the Emory University School of Law and the Emory University Business School.
Career
In 1997, Lanzone co-established eTour, an early web-based information retrieval platform offering cost-per-lead services. By 1998, eTour had become one of the top 50 websites nationwide and led in user engagement frequency. He held the position of president until eTour was acquired by Ask.com (then known as Ask Jeeves) in May 2001.
Following this acquisition, Lanzone took on product management responsibilities and eventually advanced to senior vice president and general manager at Ask.com. After IAC acquired Ask.com in 2005, he was promoted to CEO. Lanzone departed IAC in 2008 to join Redpoint Ventures as an entrepreneur in residence. Barry Diller recognized him as "the principal executive responsible for Ask.com's turnaround." Under his guidance, Ask Jeeves was rebranded to Ask.com with significant enhancements that were lauded by technology critics for improving the user experience beyond standard search outcomes. He is acknowledged for pioneering search features that delivered direct answers and interactive results—innovations later embraced by leading search engines such as Google and Bing.
During his time at CBS, Lanzone led the creation of streaming platforms including the 2014 launch of CBS All Access, which featured original series like Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and The Twilight Zone. His leadership also facilitated the introduction of CBSN, CBS Sports HQ, ET Live, along with localized versions of CBSN. Under his management, monthly unique visitors to CBS Interactive expanded from approximately 70 million to over 190 million. In 2016, he was appointed as CBS Corporation’s first-ever chief digital officer.
Lanzone exited ViacomCBS in December 2019 to become an executive-in-residence at Benchmark Capital. On July 27, 2020, he was named CEO of Tinder by the Match Group. Subsequently, on September 10, 2021, he took over as CEO of Yahoo after its acquisition by Apollo Global Management from Verizon.
Personal
Lanzone holds a position on the board of directors for GoPro as well as the Newport Festivals Foundation, which organizes the yearly Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festival. He actively invests in numerous prominent startups, including Houseparty (app), which was acquired by Epic Games; Resy, purchased by American Express; Aardvark (search engine), bought by Google; Sapho, acquired by Citrix; Vurb, obtained by Snap; Tasty Labs, acquired by Walmart; and Luvocracy, also acquired by Walmart. His portfolio further includes investments in MasterClass, Thumbtack, and Popshop Live.
See also
- Les Moonves
- Sumner Redstone
- Shari Redstone
- Joseph Ianniello
- Barry Diller
- Joey Levin
- Bill Gurley
- Blake Krikorian
- Bruce S. Gordon
- Nick Woodman
- George Wein
External links
- Pages with script errors
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1971 births
- Living people
- American computer businesspeople
- American information technology businesspeople
- American investors
- CBS executives
- Yahoo! people
- Emory University School of Law alumni
- Goizueta Business School alumni
- University of California, Los Angeles alumni
- People from San Carlos, California
- American chief executives in the mass media industry