HOMESTORE.COM CEO RESIGNS; LEADERS SHIFT.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer WESTLAKE VILLAGE - Stuart Wolff, co-founder and top executive of the financially troubled real estate Internet company Homestore.com Inc., resigned on Monday, and directors brought in a new management team. Joe F. Hanauer, a longtime long·time adj. Having existed or persisted for a long time: a longtime friend; a longtime resident of Detroit. longtime Adjective Homestore board member and real estate industry executive, replaces Wolff as company chairman. Internet analyst Shawn Milne Shawn Milne (born 9 November 1981) is a professional road bicycle racer from the Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States. In 2007, he rides in events on the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar and UCI Continental Circuits for Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis. at SoundView Technology Corp. was not surprised by the management shake-up. He is surprised that the fortunes of Homestore, once exemplified as an Internet company that weathered the dot-com implosion implosion /im·plo·sion/ (im-plo´zhun) see flooding. im·plo·sion n. 1. , have fallen so far so fast. ``I'm shocked by what's happened here in the last few months. What I like is there is an outside committee that's going to clean up the books and clean up the management team and see if they can get this headed back in the right direction,'' he said. Wolff's resignation as chairman and chief executive officer came less than a week after the company said it overstated o·ver·state tr.v. o·ver·stat·ed, o·ver·stat·ing, o·ver·states To state in exaggerated terms. See Synonyms at exaggerate. o revenues for the first three quarters of fiscal 2001 by as much as $95 million. Homestore has said that some advertising transactions should have been accounted for as barter barter: see exchange. barter Direct exchange of goods or services without the use of money or any other intervening medium of exchange. Barter is conducted either according to established rates of exchange or by bargaining. deals because they stemmed from the company's purchases of goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. . More than a half-dozen class-action lawsuits have been filed since trouble at Homestore first surfaced last month, including two additional suits filed Monday. Westlake Village-based Homestore said in early December that it was investigating accounting irregularities and that trading of its stock had been halted by Nasdaq regulators. Trading resumed on Monday but investors showed little enthusiasm. Homestore closed at $2.46, down $1.14, or 36 percent, from its last close Dec. 21. That's well under the 52-week high of $37.25 and near its low of $2.10 per share. Homestore officials did not return calls seeking comment on the management change and Wolff's biography was no longer available at the company's Web site. The new management team consists of executives from WebMd Inc., an online health information and and software provider. W. Michael Long The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. and Lewis R. Belote III was named chief financial officer. Long, 49, was formerly chairman of WebMD. Dennison, 45, was the company's executive vice president, general counsel and secretary while Belote, 46, was the senior vice president of finance. Hanauer is the former chairman of Grubb & Ellis Co. and Coldwell Banker Residential Group Inc. ``The Homestore board of directors is very pleased to have found such a strong team to lead the company,'' he said in a statement. Wolff will pursue a new technology venture, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the statement. The upheaval is the second big setback for the company since it announced a massive restructuring on Oct. 25. At that time, the company said it would eliminate about 700 jobs, or 20 percent of its work force, as part of a cost-cutting plan. ``While the reduction in staff is difficult, it is necessary to ensure the continued strength of the valuable franchise that we've established over the past five years,'' Wolff said in a statement at that time. Analyst Milne said that kind of carnage now suggests that something was amiss a·miss adj. 1. Out of proper order: What is amiss? 2. Not in perfect shape; faulty. adv. In an improper, defective, unfortunate, or mistaken way. . ``When they cut their numbers by that extent that was clearly a yellow to red flag. Business doesn't just fall away that quickly even with (the events of) 9-11. It was a signal there was a problem before that,'' he said. CAPTION(S): box Box: AT A GLANCE SOURCE: Hoover's Online Dan Delorenzo/Staff Artists |
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