Dhruv Prasad, Townsquare Media co-founder and co-CEO, has abruptly resigned from the Greenwich media company, effective Jan. 31. As a result, co-CEO Bill Wilson will serve as the firm”™s sole chief executive.
“I want to thank Dhruv for his contributions to Townsquare over his longstanding tenure, and in particular, his partnership over the past year as co-CEO,” Wilson said. “Together, we were able to reorient Townsquare to focus on our ”˜local first”™ strategy, and successfully rationalize our nonlocal businesses.”
Co-founder and Executive Chairman Steven Price said, “We thank Dhruv for his hard work and contribution in building the company over nearly a decade and for his leadership over the last year as co-chief executive officer, a period in which we reset our strategy on our core local mission and delivered financial results that were at the top of the industry.”
Price had been Townsquare”™s CEO until October 2017, when he was named to his current role; Prasad and Wilson ”“ chief content and digital officer and executive vice president of live events, respectively ”“ were then named co-CEOs.
“I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished since founding Townsquare in 2010,” Prasad said. “From scratch, we created not only the nation”™s third-largest radio broadcaster, but also built new, profitable businesses in live events and digital. With the company on strong footing and in the hands of an outstanding senior management team, it”™s time for me to move on to my next challenge.”
Townsquare”™s assets include 321 radio stations and more than 330 local websites in 67 U.S. markets; an estimated 550 live events with nearly 18 million attendees each year in the U.S. and Canada; a digital marketing services company, Townsquare Interactive, that serves more than 12,000 small to medium-size businesses on a monthly subscription basis; and a digital advertising network focused on music and entertainment that reaches more than 50 million unique visitors each month.
Previously, the Greenwich company reported that for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2018, net income was down 34.8 percent on a year-over-year basis, and that year-to-date net income was down by $32.1 million for a net loss of $15.3 million. For the first nine months of 2017, net income was $16.8 million.
Townsquare”™s financial woes have continued since: while its shares had hovered in the $9 to $10 range in August and September, it finished at $4.04 on the last trading day of 2018. It closed at $5.03 Wednesday night.
