Samsung has reportedly lost its top-ranking media executive, John Pleasants — who formerly served as the company’s EVP of media solutions in San Francisco. Variety, which first reported Pleasants’ departure, says that he is being replaced by Samsung’s Yoon C. Lee, an SVP at the company.
Samsung declined to comment on the executive shakeup, but told Variety in a statement that “we will continue to evolve our strategy and are committed to making investments focused on delivering the next generation of content and services that span our line of Galaxy devices.”
Pleasants, who charged Samsung’s Media Solutions Center America (MSCA) unit, which builds media apps — including Samsung’s Milk Music streaming service and its quickly-shuttered Milk Video platform — joined the company in 2014 from Disney, where he served as co-president of the Disney Interactive Media Group. Pleasants has also served as COO of Electronic Arts, and CEO of Ticketmaster.
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His departure arrives on the heels of several other cuts within Samsung’s MSCA division, according to Variety, including SVP of business development Steve Stanford, SVP of content and services Darren Tsui, VP Ed Ho, and VP of content and services Ian Langridge. While these cuts could serve as something of an ominous sign for Samsung’s media ambitions, Variety notes that the company is bullish on its Gear VR virtual reality headset and Milk VR app, which are performing well and are thus unlikely to see any cuts.
