Jason Child, the CFO of Groupon, will be joining Jawbone in the same job.
Groupon CFO Jumps to Jawbone in Latest Talent Grab
A new financial lead for the maker of activity trackers and other devices to get it on a more stable path.
The departure from the Chicago-based online discounts company was made this morning, although it did not say where its top financial exec was going in its announcement. Groupon also said that its current North Americas head Rich Williams would become COO.
Before Child moved to Groupon, which he took public, he was CFO of Amazon’s international finance unit. He joined Groupon in late 2010.
While some might assume that the hiring is in anticipation of an eventual IPO of the San Francisco maker of activity trackers and other wireless products, sources said this event is not contemplated for a while. That’s not a surprise, since the company has been struggling to get itself on better financial footing as it seeks to build an independent consumer electronics success — no small feat.
Still, the move is the second high-level talent grab that Jawbone has made in recent weeks. Last month, it grabbed Google’s top commerce exec Sameer Samat as president.
The latest high-profile hiring comes after Jawbone completed a $300 million funding in the form of convertible debt that kept the value of the company at about $3 billion, even as it launched several new fitness devices. The company has raised about $700 million in total, a hefty sum to try to get its products to market.
That has included its delayed Up3 device, a reimagining of its Up24 as the new Up2 and announcing a deal with American Express to create another activity tracker, called the Up4, that can also be used for payments.
Previous to that and now with this hiring, there had been much attention around the company’s efforts, especially due to increased competition from Apple and others.
Child is moving to San Francisco to join Jawbone sometime in July. Groupon said he would be at the company until the end of that month.
“Jason has done a tremendous job of helping lead Groupon through one of the most explosive periods of growth any company has ever experienced,” Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky said in a statement. “We wish him the very best in his next venture.”
And more with the statements:
“Jason has proven himself to be a well respected and highly effective leader and will bring a tremendous amount to Jawbone,” said Hosain Rahman, Jawbone’s co-founder and CEO. “Jason comes to Jawbone with experience scaling two fast-growing businesses to profit while aggressively investing in the future.”
And Child said: “I’m joining Jawbone at an incredibly exciting time. With funding in place and new products on the market, Jawbone is in a great position to harness its potential and reach many more millions of users across the globe.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
