SEATTLE – June 12, 2007 – Mpire, the popular online meta-shopping service, today announced that Rob Solomon, president and CEO of Sidestep.com, has joined its Board of Directors. The company also announced that Sean Crotty has been hired as Vice President of Product Marketing where he will oversee Mpire’s affiliate relationships and widget distribution strategy.
Solomon has led Sidestep.com, the Internet’s first and leading travel search engine, since January 2006, and is a veteran of managing high-profile, hyper-growth Internet businesses. Prior to Sidestep, he spent six years at Yahoo! where he managed the company’s booming commerce businesses as Vice President and GM of the Yahoo! Shopping Group.
"Rob’s appointment to the Mpire Board is a real win for us," said Matt Hulett, CEO of Mpire. "We expect to benefit greatly from his contributions given our similar business structures, both which aggregate consumer services. Rob’s online shopping experience at Yahoo! also makes him perfectly suited for this Board seat.
"I’m honored to join Mpire’s Board, and look forward to helping Mpire continue its growth and strategic momentum," said Rob Solomon. Mpire’s meta-shopping service and data analysis are recognized as innovative industry-leading solutions."
Crotty lead the affiliate programs for major retail sites such as Art.com and AllPosters.com. Prior to Art.com, he managed eBay’s affiliate platform, launching new Web services for eBay API and leading the development of widgets. Crotty also held positions at Apple, Silicon Graphics, General Electric and Blaze Software.
"Sean is a natural fit for advancing our widget strategy given his expertise and background," said Hulett. "With our shopping-trend widgets outperforming traditional cost-per-click advertising, Sean’s key focus will be to bring ubiquity and awareness to Mpire’s widget service."
Existing members of Mpire’s Board of Directors include Matt Hulett, Rich Tong and Michelle Goldberg, both of Ignition Partners, and investor J. Richard Rock. Mpire’s Advisory Board consists of Philip Rosedale, founder and CEO Linden Labs, Sujal Patel, founder and CTO, Isilon Systems, Evan Kaplan, founder, president and CEO, Aventail Corporation; Laurence Toney, Internet executive and entrepreneur; and Jon Zimmerman, Ph.D candidate, University of Washington.
It was also announced Tuesday that Mpire has won an eBay Star Developer Award for the creation of Shopwave (http://www.mpire.com/shopping/shopwave.html), a Flash-based service designed to give online buyers the ability to visually and virtually window shop. The award was given at the eBay Developers Conference in Boston, Mass.
About Mpire
Seattle-based Mpire is an award-winning meta-shopping service that brings together thousands of online stores and marketplaces, such as eBay, Amazon, Shopping.com, Target, WalMart and Gap. Mpire’s universal shopping experience combines proprietary pricing analysis for both new and used items, coupons and reviews, as well as distributed shopping features such as the Mpire Plug-in, shopping-trend widgets and Web service APIs. Founded in 2005, Mpire is backed by Ignition Partners and former eBay executive Richard Rock.
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Mpire is a trademark of Mpire, Inc.
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For more information, media only:
Paulette Trimmer
Communiqué PR (for Mpire)
Phone : (206) 282-4923 ext. 115
Jennifer Gehrt
Communiqué PR (for Mpire)
Phone : (206) 282-0696 ext. 112