New CEO for Crowdstar
Executive chairman takes reins from Niren Hiro due to "different visions"
Crowdstar executive chairman Peter Relan has taken over as the social game developer's CEO, replacing Niren Hiro in the top spot after less than a year.
Relan told VentureBeat that while the switchover was an amicable one, "We have different visions on how to scale the business and exploit the opportunities before us."
Former AdMob man Hiro, who joined Crowdstar in May 2010, will stay on in an advisory capacity.
Crowdstar claims to achieved its audience, roughly a sixth of Zynga's, without any third-party investment, but with a potential doubling of staff headcounts (to around 150) planned for 2011, it's now at the point where "raising money is a consideration."
The Happy Aquarium developer is increasingly targeting platforms other than Facebook - including offering the first social game for Microsoft's Bing.