Phorm Inc
On the heels of the departure of its four U.S. board members, controversial behavioral targeting company Phorm faces yet more upheaval. The company, which has consistently said it intends to enter the U.S. market, is now losing its U.K. chief executive, Hugh Drayton, as well as U.K. chief financial officer Lynne Millar.
The U.K. Internet service provider BT Group said Monday it has completed its most recent test of controversial behavioral targeting company Phorm's platform, Webwise, and expects to roll out the system throughout the network. BT and Phorm refused to answer questions about whether they intend to seek subscribers' explicit consent before deploying the platform, or whether Webwise will automatically monitor Web activity and serve targeted ads unless subscribers opt out.
In a shakeup for controversial behavioral targeting company Phorm, four board members are exiting due to disagreements with CEO Kent Ertugrul about the company's direction. The departing board members are Stephen Heyer, former Coca-Cola executive; David Dormon, chairman of Motorola; Christopher Lawrence, an executive with investment banking firm Rothschild; and Virsasb Vahidi, who also served as chief operating officer.
Behavioral targeting company Phorm seems to be suffering from a privacy-related backlash in the U.K.This week, Neil Berkett, CEO of Internet service provider Virgin Media, told investors in New York that the company wasn't likely to work with Phorm any time soon. "Our next initiative probably won't be with the Phorms of the world," he said, according to reports.
