Photobucket is having a small executive-level shake-up less than two months after it announced it would merge with Ontela, a Seattle-based company that develops photo-sharing software for phones.
Ontela’s Founder Dan Shapiro said today that over the next month he will transition out of his role as CTO, but will remain a member of the board and an advisor to the company. Shapiro told mocoNews: “I was committed to staying through the transition, but it made sense to see how things were going, and I had to ask if this is the right thing for me and right thing for the company. They graciously asked me to be an advisor and be on the board of directors. I won’t be leaving Photobucket out in the cold.”
In December, News Corp.‘s Photobucket merged with Ontela and raised an additional round of capital. The investors, including Oak Investment Partners, Voyager Capital, Walt Disney’s Steamboat Ventures; and Covera Ventures (formerly Hunt Capital), and News Corp (NYSE: NWS). continue to have significant equity positions in the combined entity.
At the time of the merger, the Photobucket team was expected to play a “strong role” in the combined company with Ontela’s CFO Tom Munro becoming president, and Ontela’s CEO Dan Shapiro transitioning to CTO. Munro is also currently the acting chief executive officer as the company conducts a CEO search.
Shapiro said he has a couple ideas on what he will do next and has been talking to a few people who have started new companies. “I started Ontela four years ago, and I’m ready to do something new and exciting.”
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