Google Video chief signs out
The writing was on the wall for this one since the moment last October that Google (GOOG) agreed to buy YouTube. Jennifer Feikin, the director and chief businesswoman of Google Video, is leaving the company. I’ve wondered ever since the deal was announced how Google Video and YouTube would co-exist inside the same company. YouTube so thoroughly vanquished Google Video, an also-ran product in terms of traffic, that Google was compelled to buy YouTube, if only to keep it out of the hands of Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) or one of the several broadcast networks that should have bought it. Feikin, at least, has something of an answer to the question: She’s not sticking around to find out.
A four-year-veteran at Google (yes, typical stock-option grants take four years to vest), Feikin was cut from a different cloth than other Googlers. Her glittering resume includes stints at Time Warner’s AOL unit (TWX), News Corp.’s (NWS) 20th Century Fox and the consulting giant McKinsey. (No slouch: She’s Harvard Law and Duke undergrad to boot.) Google Video’s relative lack of traction compared with YouTube shows that on the Internet even a well funded product guided by an experienced and savvy strategist doesn’t always win.
In an email to her peeps Feikin reflected on her “amazing years” at Google, which included the “launch and phenomenal growth of a once-tiny product called Google Video.” She said she’s leaving for “new adventures.” She shouldn’t have any trouble finding them.
Feikin was the cause of most of Google’s problems with the content owners today. She was combative and sour and unwilling to work with others. It is no accident that there was no role for her following the YouTube deal.
Adam
She left more than six months…so yes, Jim’s right: not news.
Pfff…Google Video will be gone soon. Who watches it anyway? And most of the video displayed on Goodgle Video are directed to YouTube! Save storage and get rid of Google Video.
This is the lame sort of reporting that makes you obsolete. No depth or substance. Finally, who cares?
What have you told us about the credentials of Feikin here, really? That she’s been with AOL, Fox, McKinsey, and that she’s has a Harvard Law and Duke first degree, do *NOT* make her a sure win in the internet world. Does that automatically make her a “seasoned” executive? I don’t think so. That’s why it’s so much fun on the web, since the rules of the grown-up business world do not automatically and always apply.
But yes, it’s certainly wise for her to leave, right after the option vesting, given the big flame-out of Google Video.
Do you think Google will keep both brands active (Video and YouTube)?
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Wall Street watchers think of capital markets and financial players out west as being on the "other" coast. That's not how it's viewed in the Pacific time zone. From the venture capitalists of Sand Hill Road to the bond kingpins of Orange County to the corporate finance department at a certain software company in Redmond, Wash., there's plenty going on "out there." Adam Lashinsky should know. A native of Chicago, he has covered West Coast finance for a decade, with an emphasis on money matters in Silicon Valley. If it involves money and it's happening west of the Mississippi, look for it in Go West. 
1. this is really not news.
2. she is great.