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ESPN gets new president; Snap to lay off 100 engineers

S&P Global Market Intelligence presents a weekly rundown of executive changes in the U.S. media and communications industries.

TOP STORIES

* Walt Disney Co.'s Chairman of Consumer Products and Interactive Media James Pitaro is the new president of ESPN Inc. and co-chair of Disney Media Networks. Pitaro succeeds former ESPN President John Skipper, who abruptly resigned in December 2017 after acknowledging a substance addiction. Pitaro, who joined Disney in 2010, will report directly to Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger, the company said March 5.

* Snap Inc. intends to lay off about 10% of its engineers, or about 100 people, online news site Cheddar reported, citing sources. The company targets to announce the layoffs within the week. The Snapchat developer has also cut nearly two dozen jobs across eight teams in January which mostly affected the company's content division. Prior to that, the company in 2017 laid off employees in its hardware and recruiting divisions, the report said. Steve Horowitz in September 2017 also stepped down as head of Snap's hardware team.

Media industry moves

* Univision Communications Inc. confirmed media reports that CEO Randy Falco intends to step down at the end of 2018. The board wants Falco to help with the company's restructure in 2019. It has also asked him to coordinate as the company moves to a new leadership, board Chairman Haim Saban said. Univision earlier said March 6 that it appointed Peter Lori as CFO. Lori replaces Francisco Lopez-Balboa, who decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. Lori served as interim CFO in 2015, before UCI named Lopez-Balboa as CFO. His previous roles include Univision's executive vice president, finance, chief accounting officer and deputy CFO.

* The Meet Group Inc. appointed James Bugden to be the company's permanent CFO. Bugden, who previously was the company's senior vice president for corporate development, was named interim financial chief following the departure of David Clark. In addition, Niklas Lindstrom stepped down as chief technology officer of the company under a mutual agreement, effective March 5. The company entered into a consultant agreement with Lindstrom, pursuant to which Lindstrom will provide transitional assistance services to the company through Dec. 31.

* Former Pinterest Inc. executive Mike Bidgoli and former BuzzFeed Studios head Matthew Henick will join Facebook Inc.'s video content units. Bidgoli will head the Facebook Watch product team, while Henick, who had worked at Pinterest for about two years, will lead the social media company's global video content strategy and planning unit, according to the executives' announcements. In addition to the two new executives, the company is also said to be preparing to appoint Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton to lead its live sports initiatives, according to a January report.

* TiVo Corp. Chief Administrative and Internal Operations Officer Dustin Finer is leaving the company. The effective date for Finer's departure has yet to be determined, the company said in a March 2 SEC filing, adding that Finer plans to continue to serve in his current position for the next several months to help ensure a smooth transition of his duties and as the company finds a new human resources leader.

* News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers LLC bought the trade book assets of AMACOM from the American Management Association International, according to a March 2 news release. Jeff James, vice president and publisher of HarperCollins Leadership, will lead business development, marketing and editorial for AMACOM.

* Discovery Communications Inc. disclosed the new senior leadership team for the company following its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. Appointments announced March 1 that will report to Discovery CEO and President David Zaslav include Discovery's Gunnar Wiedenfels, who will serve as CFO of the combined company, the same position he holds at Discovery. Jean-Briac Perrette, president and CEO of Discovery Networks International, will continue overseeing the combined company's global expansion. Bruce Campbell, Discovery's chief development, distribution and legal officer, will retain that role at the combined company. Jon Steinlauf, Scripps Network's president of national ad sales and marketing, will be chief U.S. advertising sales officer of the combined company. Kathleen Finch, chief programming, content and brand officer for Scripps Networks, will become the chief lifestyle brands officer for the combined company, overseeing HGTV (US), Food Network (US), TLC (US), ID, Travel Channel (US), DIY Network (US), Cooking Channel (US), Discovery Life Channel (US), American Heroes Channel (US), Destination America (US), Great American Country (US) and Lifestyle Digital Studios in the U.S. TLC President Nancy Daniels, will assume the new role of chief brand officer of Discovery & Factual, effective immediately, overseeing all aspects of Discovery Channel (US) and the Science Channel brands. Rich Ross, group president of Discovery Channel and Science Channel, will be leaving the company. Susanna Dinnage, global president of the Animal Planet network in the U.S. and the Animal Planet brand worldwide, will continue in that role. Erik Logan, president of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (US), will continue in that role and report to the OWN Venture board of directors. Karen Leever, executive vice president and general manager of digital media in the U.S., and Mike Lang, president of Discovery Networks International digital and CEO of TEN/MotorTrend, will continue in those roles.

* Liberty Interactive Corp. is changing its name to Qurate Retail Group. The new name will be used after the completion of the split-off of GCI Liberty Inc. following the previously announced acquisition of GCI Liberty, and the company will formally effect this name change at a later date. Mike George, currently CEO of QVC Inc., will head Qurate Retail Group as president and CEO, while Greg Maffei, who currently holds that position, will become chairman, according to a March 1 news release.

Communications industry moves

* Glen Post III will retire as CEO of CenturyLink Inc., effective the day of the company's 2018 annual shareholder meeting in May. Post had previously announced his intention to retire effective Jan. 1, 2019. The company has tapped President and COO Jeff Storey to be the new CEO and president when Post steps down.

* Frontier Communications Corp. named Rob Curtis senior vice president and chief marketing officer of the company. Curtis previously was a partner at Bain & Co., the company said March 5.

* Gogo Inc. appointed Oakleigh Thorne as the company's new president and CEO. Thorne replaces Michael Small, who reached a mutual agreement with the Gogo board of directors to step down from his roles as president, CEO and a director of the company. Thorne, who has been a director of the Chicago-based inflight internet company since 2003, previously was CEO of Thorndale Farm LLC, the family office of the Thorne family, which also happens to be the biggest Gogo shareholder.