OpenWeb, a New York startup that provides tools to help publishers connect with their users, has a unique problem: its co-founder and CEO won’t be leaving, despite the company announcing a new CEO.
According to CTech, OpenWeb President Tim Harvey sent an email to employees on Tuesday announcing that he was becoming CEO and thanking longtime CEO Nadav Shoval for his “incredible passion.” Shortly after, Shoval shared his own message to employees, claiming that “the board falsely told me I was stepping down as CEO… That is not true and it was not my intention.” Shoval also accused the board of reneging on his contract.
We contacted Shoval, and in the meantime Harvey sent us this: other An email to OpenWeb staff suggested that they ignore Shoval’s memo: “We apologize to everyone who received this email. We are moving forward with the CEO transition as planned.” Shoval also disappeared from OpenWeb’s “who we are” page.
OpenWeb has raised about $400 million from investors, and was last valued by investors at $1.5 billion in 2022.
