S&P Global Market Intelligence presents a rundown of board changes in the U.S. media and communications industries.
* TripAdvisor Inc. increased the size of the board to nine directors from eight and appointed Jay Hoag to fill the resulting vacancy. Hoag co-founded Technology Crossover Ventures, a private equity and venture capital firm, in 1995 and is still a founding general partner.
* RhythmOne plc on Feb. 2 closed its acquisition of YuMe Inc. Eric Singer and John Mutch have been appointed as nonexecutive directors of RhythmOne. Singer will also become RhythmOne's chairman; Raj Chellaraj will step down as chairman, but will remain a nonexecutive director. Suranga Chandratillake and Andrea Cunningham resigned as nonexecutive directors.
* Marvin Quin, who has served on E.W. Scripps Co.'s board since 2009 and as lead director for five years, plans to retire from the board when his term ends in May, the company said in a Feb. 1 SEC filing. The company appointed former senior investment management executive Kim Williams as its lead director and nominated Lauren Rich Fine, an investment professional, to serve on the board. Fine will stand for election by the class A shareholders at Scripps' annual shareholder meeting. Rich Boehne will remain chairman of the board.
* John Hennessy will become chairman of Alphabet Inc., replacing Eric Schmidt, who announced in December 2017 he was stepping down as executive chairman. Hennessy has served as a member of the board since April 2004 and lead independent director since April 2007. Schmidt will remain on the company's board and will assume a new role as a technical adviser to Alphabet. Additionally, Shirley Tilghman, a director since 2005, will retire from Alphabet's board, effective Feb. 15.
* GAMCO Asset Management Inc., an affiliate of GAMCO Investors Inc., unveiled its nominees for Cincinnati Bell Inc.'s board. GAMCO said Jan. 31 that it intends to nominate James Chadwick and Matthew Goldfarb to the board of Cincinnati Bell at the 2018 annual meeting. Additional nominees for the board may be announced at a later date. GAMCO, on behalf of its clients, and certain of its affiliates owns about 11.0% of the outstanding common stock of Cincinnati Bell.
* Meredith Corp.'s board elected Steve Lacy executive chairman and Tom Harty president and CEO, effective Feb. 1.
* Ross Levinsohn notified Tribune Media Co. of his decision to take a leave of absence from the company's board, according to a Jan. 29 SEC filing. During such absence, Levinsohn will not participate in any activities of the board. In addition, Laura Walker was appointed to the audit committee and the nominating and corporate governance committee of the board.
* Standard General LP nominated three new members for National CineMedia Inc.'s board. According to a Schedule 13D filed Jan. 26, the investor asked the company's board to appoint any two of the three individuals as directors. The nominees are Colleen Brown, Andrew Glaze and Kurt Hall, the former president, CEO and chairman of National CineMedia and the beneficial owner of 1,702,338 shares of common stock. Hall, meanwhile, has indicated that he would not be interested in serving as a nominee at the annual meeting if his candidacy was opposed by the company or the founding members.
* Beasley Broadcast Group Inc. increased the size of the board to 10 directors from nine and appointed Michael Fiorile to fill the resulting vacancy. The board also appointed Fiorile to serve on its audit committee. Fiorile has served as chairman and CEO of The Dispatch Printing Co., a privately owned regional broadcast media and real estate company, since July 2016.
* Sirius XM Holdings Inc. appointed Michael Rapino a director, effective Jan. 23. Rapino has been the president and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment Inc. since 2005.
