UPDATED, Oct. 24, 6:27 p.m.: Doug Curry was fired as Xceligent CEO Monday as the data company’s legal battle against rival CoStar is heating up.
On Tuesday night the company announced that Frank Anton, former CEO of media company Hanley Wood, will take over the company as executive chairman. Chief people officer Erin Curry is also out, the company said. COO Jody Vanarsdale will serve as acting CEO.
It wasn’t immediately clear why Curry was fired, but sources said it was unrelated to the CoStar lawsuit and part of a broader restructuring of the company that could lead to cost cuts. A representative Xceligent could not be reached for comment beyond a press release.
Xceligent, which offers a subscription-based commercial property database, is a major player in several secondary markets, largely in the South, Midwest and in California.
British media company the Daily Mail and General Trust bought Xceligent in 2012. Last year, the Missouri-based firm’s expansion into New York City and Curry has been spending much of his time meeting with local executives and building local partnerships. In May, it reached a deal with leasing comp database CompStak to integrate their online platforms.
The executives’ exits come amid ongoing litigation with a direct rival of the company. CoStar sued Xceligent in December for copyright infringement, alleging that it systematically stole its data. Xceligent hit back in June and filed an antitrust lawsuit.
Then, late last week, an Xceligent contractor, ReBackOffice, admitted in court that the company directed it to steal CoStar data — a potentially serious legal blow. The company also claimed that Doug Curry and chief research office Nathan Lipowicz were involved in the maneuver.
On Tuesday morning, Xceligent sent an email to its customers dismissing the allegations.
“ReBackOffice is a small company with nowhere near the resources of CoStar, and we believe that they, like others before them, felt intimidated to settle with CoStar for business reasons,” the company wrote.