Yelp hires new CFO on way to IPO
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Yelp, the popular online reviews website, is one step closer to an initial public offering.
The San Francisco company said Thursday that it has hired Rob Krolik as chief financial officer. Krolik helped take Shopping.com public and shepherded its sale to EBay. He is replacing CFO Vlado Herman, who has worked at Yelp since 2006.
Yelp joins a swelling number of Internet companies set to rush the public markets in coming months as investors clamor to invest in them. Like many other companies that have chosen to stay private longer, Yelp -- which was founded in 2004 -- has taken a circuitous route to the stock exchange.
In January 2010 it raised $100 million from Elevation Partners to remain privately held. The company took the big cash infusion right after talks with Google to buy Yelp broke off. Google instead launched a Yelp competitor called Google Places.
‘Rob’s demonstrated track record as a successful public company CFO and hands-on business experience made him the perfect candidate to step into this important role on our management team,’ Yelp Chief Executive Jeremy Stoppelman said in a statement.
Stoppelman said at the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco this month that Yelp would go public in the next year or so.
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