LivingSocial has named Gautam Thakar the company’s new Chief Executive Officer and President. He will replace LivingSocial’s Co-Founder, Tim O’Shaughnessy, who announced his resignation in January.
Thakar joins LivingSocial from eBay, where he previously served as General Manager for eBay’s Advertising business. He also previously served as CEO of Shopping.com, which eBay acquired in 2005. He also held the role of head of International Marketing for eBay and as country manager of eBay India.
Thakar will begin to serve as CEO in mid-August. O’Shaughnessy will remain as an advisor to LivingSocial to assist with the transition, the company said in a statement.
A long, uphill battle
LivingSocial, along with Groupon, was one of the pioneer businesses that made daily deals popular across the US. However, the company reported a net loss of $183 million for 2013 and a net loss of $653 million in 2012, and $558 million in 2011.
Last year the online deals site was the victim of a catastrophic hack that impacted 50 million customers around the world.
Thakar’s deep background in e-commerce, marketing and brand-building (he spent five years at P&G working with brands like Tide) should help LivingSocial regain the focus that prompted Amazon to invest $175 million in the company in 2010. Unfortunately for Amazon, it lost $169 million on that investment by 2012.
