Blinkx hires Spira for senior financial role

by Milly Glaister, Media Week 17-Sep-08, 10:15

LONDON - Video search engine Blinkx has appointed Jonathan Spira as chief financial officer.

Bringing 20 years of technology industry experience to the role, Spira will assume financial duties currently managed by Matthew Service, who has served as both chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Blinkx since 2006.

Spira joins Blinkx from J Phineas International, a business consultancy he founded to develop software services. He has also held senior finance and planning positions at Walt Disney, PepsiCo and Nestle Food Company.

The appointment comes after digital media company Miva turned down a $40m takeover bid from Blinkx last month. The Miva board believed the offer, which worked out at $1.20 per share, "significantly undervalued" the company's assets.

Last month, Blinkx also launched Blinkx Remote, an online TV archive that allows users to search for all British TV shows that are legally available online. Consumers can choose from shows on BBC iPlayer and the online video-on-demand services provided by ITV, Channel 4 and Five.