Leading up to the BIA/Kelsey NOW Conference, which will debut in San Francisco this June, we’re kicking off a regular series of blog postings on the Local On-Demand Economy (see our white paper). Twice per week, we’ll wrap notable news, fundings and executive moves in the LODE world.

Top Fundraiser Ever Leaves Uber

Uber Chief Financial Officer Brent Callinicos, who raised more venture capital than any CFO in history for the on-demand car service, has stepped down to spend more time with his wife and daughter. Having delivered $5.6 billion in funding to the company since he joined in September 2013, Callinicos’ record is unmatched among startup financial executives.

He joined the company shortly after its Series C round, when Uber had a mere $306 million in backing. As of yesterday, when CEO Travis Kalanick announced his departure, Uber with Callinicos had raised an additional $4 billion in capital and $1.6 billion in debt financing, a total of $5.6 billion in cash to achieve a $40+ billion valuation. Uber is widely expected to make an initial public offering this year. Callinicos remains an advisor to the company.

If you are not already dialing Callinicos to see what he is doing next, stop and think about the magnitude of Uber’s growth under his financial guidance. Facebook, by contrast, raised only $2.4 billion prior to its IPO, less than half the amount raised by Uber during the last 18 months (Callinicos joined Sept. 9, 2013). Kalinick wrote on his blog at the time that “Uber has enormous opportunities ahead.” Kalinick is reported to have told employees in email that “Brent has done a wonderful job here at Uber.”

“He will be a legend among startup CFOs,” Erik Gordon, professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, told The Wall Street Journal. We will watch with interest for Callinicos’ next business move.

Steve Case Talks of “Third-Wave Disruption” at SXSW

AOL founder Steve Case, speaking at the South By Southwest Conference in Austin Texas this weekend, said the Internet is poised for a “third-wave distuption [that will] account for more than half our economy.” This is the Local On-Demand Economy, which will drive the innovations of the past quarter century at the enterprise level into the local and emerging economies.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Case described the third wave as an environment in which [paraphrasing Case] “Companies that expect to thrive will need to partner with embedded stakeholders such as teachers, doctors and large corporations as well as with government agencies.” He responded to critics of the idea saying, “Engagement with governments may sound unappealing to many of you, but the entrepreneurs who figure out how to operate in this new framework have the potential to reap amazing rewards in this next wave.”

Case described the disruption at the local level as the result of improved access to capital from crowdsourcing, an increasing recognition of the role of strategic partnerships in new and existing companies, the rise of “impact” investing for social good and, the emergence of many more centers of digital innovation beyond Silicon Valley. We see the same forces at work. In particular, the role of strategic partnering will be critical. BIA/Kelsey believes partnering will be carried out through digital channels using APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow businesses to blend and customize their products and services with many partners to deliver exactly what a consumer wants, when they want it, at home, the workplace or in the community.

Case’s point about government is well taken. The disruption of local economics will have vast consequences for local, state and federal tax bases. For one thing, more workers will likely be using incorporation to extend their ability to supply and deliver services locally, changing the tax base in novel ways. Every government service, from street maintenance and education to police protection will be impacted by potentially lower short-term government revenue as 1099 economics takes hold. Health care may become an essential enabling service to ensure social mobility as workers abandon the lifelong career. The need for ongoing adult education will become an industry unto itself, augmenting reduced public spending or, perhaps, a greater focus by government on early-life public education.

“The government spends more on health and learning than anybody,” Case told the SXSW audience. “So successful third-wave entrepreneurs will need to engage more, not only with governments as their principal regulator, but also as their potentially largest customer.” We also anticipate that in the “1099 Economy” demand-side aggregators such as Uber, TaskRabbit and others will find that helping their contract employees engage with their community will be a key to independent employee retention.

Case is currently chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, a Washington-based venture firm with a broad portfolio in consumer-facing startups.

Stay tuned for much more on LODE in the coming weeks.

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In a move that is surprising a lot of people, Marissa Mayer, arguably the face of “local” at Google, will leave immediately to take the top job at online media company Yahoo. The appointment as Yahoo’s new president & CEO, announced today, takes effect tomorrow. Long transition periods tend to go by the wayside when one is jumping to a competitor.

Mayer was Google employee number 20, and has risen steadily through the ranks, leading the charge on a number of popular Google products, including search, email, news and images. She was also part of the company’s operating committee, the definition of Google’s inner circle. Mayer has recently led Google’s efforts in local. However, in recent months her role has been a bit less clear, following a reorganization that placed Jeff Huber directly responsible for local. Mayer has since shown signs of restlessness, for example joining corporate boards (notably Wal-Mart).

Mayer’s legacy includes instrumental roles in building Google Places and in pulling off the Zagat’s acquisitions. Some misses include the failures to acquire Yelp and Groupon.

The Yahoo job makes sense for Mayer in that it allows her to take a leadership role, one that may never become available at Google. Yet the move involves risk, since Yahoo is a company in flux, trying to find a business model that will rescue it from the position it now finds itself in, a second tier online player operating in the shadows of Google and Facebook. Yahoo still has a strong brand, particularly in areas like sports and finance, but it has failed to keep pace with its rivals and revenues have stagnated.

Yahoo is certainly in need of some strategic vision and leadership. The company has recently seen a revolving door of CEO, with the most recent chief, Scott Thomson, leaving just four months into his tenure amid allegations that he lied about his academic credentials. Thomson had announced a new strategy built around marketplaces and e-commerce (a move away from advertising), but the strategy died with with departure. Yahoo has been lead by interim CEO Ross Levinsohn since Thomson’s departure.

Over the years, Yahoo has become a company that is much more about content than search, having outsourced search to Microsoft in 2009. This may be an adjustment for Mayer, who is more familiar with search from her years at Google. Acting CEO Levinsohn is a veteran of News Corp., CBS and Saatchi and Saatchi. Mayer might be wise to leverage Levinsohn’s savvy and experience in the ad world as she acclimates to her challenging new role.

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Thomsonlocal.com, the U.K. local print and online directories company owned by Italy’s Seat PG, has changed CEOs. Effective April 1, Elio Schiavo will move over to run Seat’s Telegate (directory assistance) operation full time. Schiavo has recently been dividing his time between Telegate and Thomson.

His replacement is veteran Seat executive Paolo Giuri, currently CEO of Europages, a B2B search operation under the Seat umbrella. Schiavo will remain chairman of Thomson Directories Ltd.

Giuri has a challenging task ahead guiding Thomson through a difficult transformation to a multi-product local print and digital SMB marketing company, competing with everyone from U.K. directories leader Yell to online only players like ReachLocal.

Thomson has a strong brand in the U.K. and a history of being creative in its approach to products and partnering. Some recent moves include a deal with CBS Outdoor to sell remnant bus advertising space and an agreement with Samsung to be included in its smart TV app store.

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The Australian telecom Telstra announced yesterday that Bruce Akhurst, CEO of its Sensis directories unit, has resigned. Akhurst had once been seen as a rising start at Telstra, but his failure to complete the transformation of Sensis from a traditional to a digital media company likely secured his fate. In fairness to Akhurst, his struggles are shared across the global Yellow Pages industry.

Akhurst’s departure comes in the wake of the Sensis’ steady erosion. In the most recently completed half year (ended Dec. 31, 2011), the company saw its revenues fall by 24 percent.

Rick Ellis’ recent arrival at Telstra was likely the first signal that Akhurst was on notice. Telstra CEO David Thodey effectively demoted Akhurst by placing the Sensis business within Ellis’ portfolio. Ellis comes to Telstra from Television New Zealand, where he was CEO.

As Group Managing Director, Digital Media, Ellis will oversee Sensis as well as all of Telstra’s digital media efforts. In addition to Sensis, Telstra owns a 50 percent share in the Australian pay TV company Foxtel. One of Ellis’ major priorities will be Telstra’s plan to invest in a high-quality video streaming platform. Once Akhurst leaves, Ellis will run Sensis on an interim basis while a search is under way for a permanent CEO.

Akhurst has been at Telstra for 15 years, the past seven at the Sensis helm. His tenure at Sensis has been full of highs and lows. He is perhaps best known for bringing in a group of U.S. based Yellow Pages executives led by sales veteran Carol Johnson and committing to a strategy built around growing print revenues. This effort was based on the premise that print had sufficient untapped value to drive growth. The company focused on improved execution and more proof of value in print, and for a time the strategy worked. As late as 2009, the company was still generating print growth. Johnson joined Sensis as COO in 2007 and left in 2009.

The print-centric strategy was ultimately unsustainable,with print turning south in the 2010 financial year. Last year Sensis rolled out a new strategy focused on becoming a digital solutions provider to SMBs. Rapid erosion in its biggest markets, Sydney and Melbourne, has been at the root of Sensis’s recent decline.

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Local Insight Media President and CEO Scott Pomeroy has resigned, effective Friday. Pomeroy was replaced as interim CEO by Scott Brubaker, a director at the turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal, and since October 2010, LIM’s chief restructuring officer. This move comes just a few months after LIM filed for Chapter 11 in an effort to restructure its debt to ensure its long-term viability.

BIA/Kelsey has also learned that Executive Vice President Kathy Geiger-Schwab has also resigned. Executive Chairman Marilyn Neal has stepped in as acting chief operating officer, and Linda Martin has returned to LIM to serve as “interim senior sales advisor.” Richard Jenkins, also a director with Alvarez & Marsal, has been named acting CFO.

All this suggests a feeling among LIM’s investors that a new team was needed to right the ship so that it can operate effectively once it emerges from bankruptcy. Or, in another possible scenario, the company has inserted a new team to prepare the company for sale. LIM is essentially a collection of acquisitions that have been pieced together, and doing so always presents a serious operational challenge. LIM had benefited from a deliberate avoidance of exposure to major metro markets, and from picking isolated market, which are less vulnerable to competition.

The company’s main obstacle, however, is its debt, which stood at about $580 million before the bankruptcy filing. LIM had 2009 revenues of $578 million.

Pomeroy had only recently accepted a position on the board of Yellow Pages Group New Zealand, a firm going through its own debt-related struggles.

Alvarez & Marsal is familiar with the Yellow Pages industry. The firm was brought in by investors in European Directories, and one of its directors, Peter Briggs, was put in place last year as EDSA’s CEO, replacing Cornel Riklin, who had been running EDSA since 2006.

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This just in (via Bloomberg), Marissa Mayer, Google VP of search products, will switch roles and now head up all local and location products.

These are increasingly important areas of development for Google as evidenced by its public moves and conversations we’ve had with the company. The initiatives in this local bucket of course include Google Places, as well as mobile local products like Latitude.

Mayer is one of Google’s most public executive faces, kicking off many of its signature product launch events. She’s also one of Google’s first employees and its first female engineer. This exposure should lend both symbolic and practical emphasis on Google’s local efforts.

Mayer’s former role of VP of search products will be taken over by Udi Manber, VP of engineering for Web search and former CEO of Amazon’s local search play A9.

Image Credit: TechCrunch

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BIA/Kelsey understands that the company’s largest debt holders have been conducting a thorough review of the business, and this action may be one of the outcomes of this effort. Klein’s departure was announced without the usual pleasantries that mark an amicable parting. The press release announcing the change did not thank Klein for his service or mention any of his accomplishments while CEO.

Klein, who joined SuperMedia in June 2008, is best known for leading the company through its bankruptcy and name change (Idearc exited bankruptcy at the end of 2009 and was then renamed SuperMedia), and for implementing the SuperGuarantee, a program that has helped raise the profile of the SuperMedia brand. However, Klein invested heavily in promoting the SuperGuarantee. Any significant investment in Yellow Pages in the current environment creates pressure for quick results.

Klein’s is another in a series of departures as directory boards worldwide are wasting little time changing leaders when results fail to materialize. Most recently Eniro CEO Jesper Karrbrink and European Directories CEO Cornel Riklin were removed. Karrbrink was removed expressly to bring in a CEO with more experience negotiating with banks. Eniro is pursuing a restructuring of its debt and needed more expertise than Karrbrink had in that area. The company has endorsed the content focused strategy that Karrbrink had put in place, and most of the team he assembled remains in place.

Little has been said publicly about Riklin’s departure. He was recently replaced on a European CEO panel at the European Association of Directory Publishers conference in Venice by company COO Ben Legg. European Directories recently completed a process in which its primary owner, Macquarie Capital, wrote off a majority of the company’s debt.

Closer to home, DexOne’s longtime CEO Dave Swanson retired earlier this year and was replaced by Alfred Mockett, a former British Telecom executive who once had responsibility for Yellow Pages before BT spun off what is now Yell in 2000. We spoke with executives who were familiar with BT during Mockett’s tenure, and they describe him as a consummate deal-maker. The question is, if that is so, what deal is he planning to make? One obvious possibility is the combination of DexOne and SuperMedia, assuming it creates enough synergy to make sense financially.

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BIA/Kelsey understands that the company’s largest debt holders have been conducting a thorough review of the business, and this action may be one of the outcomes of this effort. Klein’s departure was announced without the usual pleasantries that mark an amicable parting. The press release announcing the change did not thank Klein for his service or mention any of his accomplishments while CEO.

Read the rest of this post at our Global Yellow Pages blog.

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We had the opportunity to spend a few minutes this morning with Alfred Mockett, the new CEO of Dex One, on his first day on the job, and it’s clear that he plans to follow an aggressive change management agenda.

Mockett replaces Dave Swanson, who announced his retirement in May. Since then, Dex One has been managed on an interim basis by a board committee.

As the U.K. native joked at the start of the conversation, he hadn’t yet been able to “get his feet under his desk.” However, he had a pretty clear understanding of what he was up against when he took this assignment.

“I believe I can make a difference,” he told us. “This company is in a sector that is facing discontinuous change. The intersection of changing demographics and rapidly evolving technology means step function change, not incremental change and not evolutionary change.”

Mockett’s assessment of Dex One is that it contains a great deal of underlying value, most of it locked up in its database, and its relationships with about half a million SMBs.

“This can’t be done with print media alone,” he said, which may be stating the obvious but also signals a much more aggressive push into digital than Dex One has attempted to date.

Mockett noted that his entire career has been about change management. His previous stints at Motiv (a software company), American Management Systems (consulting) and BT (telecom) all involved managing some form of transformation.

Mockett says he has a plan for the first 100 days. After one day in his office today, he will begin a two-week journey to visit employees, investors and partners to hear their ideas and concerns.

“I do not want to pull the trigger on an irreversible decision until I have had the benefit of their input.”

The outcome at 100 days will be a vision for the company, a strategy to deliver on that vision, and the business plans that underpin the strategy.

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Dex One, SuperMedia in Cross-Distribution Deal

SuperPages.com Reveals Its IYP Overhaul

Dex One Names New CEO

Eniro Replaces CEO

PagesJaunes Groupe, Seat PG Deny Merger Reports

Speculation Surrounds Yell Shares Hike

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