Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is Leaving the Online Video Service

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar (News - Alert) is leaving the company in a few months, and no one has been named to take his place. Additionally, CTO Rich Tom will be leaving Hulu. Both Kilar and Tom have worked at the company for over five years.

“I am currently working with the Board to ensure there is ample runway to manage this transition,” Kilar said in an e-mail sent to employees on Friday. He added it was a tough decision to leave the company.

“We are fortunate to have collectively built a culture that matters, a brand that matters, a business that matters,” Kilar said in the e-mail.  “Our convictions and our relentless pursuit of better ways have made the difference and will continue to make the difference. We have grown from a few hundred thousand in revenue in 2007 to generating almost $700 million in revenue in 2012 alone. We have created a video subscription service that is growing unusually fast, adding over 200K new subscribers in the past 7 days alone (a new record). We have proudly generated over $1 Billion for our content partners since we excitedly entered private beta in October 2007. Our video advertising service delivers world-class results and sets the pace for the industry. We have authored scores of inventions along the way.”

Kilar has received a “multimillion dollar payout” and will be out of his current job by April, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Comcast (News - Alert), Disney and News Corp are key owners of the company. In October, the company was valued at about $2 billion.

“Jason has been an integral part of the Hulu (News - Alert) story, transforming it from an interesting idea into an innovative business model that continues to evolve,” Bob Iger, Disney’s chairman and CEO, said.

“Jason and his team have done a great job building Hulu into one of the leading online video services available today and it’s incredibly well positioned for the road ahead,” Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, added in a statement quoted by The New York Times. “We are grateful for Jason’s leadership and wish him the best on his next venture.”

Kilar was a leading candidate to become Yahoo’s CEO but the Marissa Mayer, a Google (News - Alert) executive, was named to the post in 2012, according to TMCnet. He is considered to be sought after for other leadership positions in the technology sector.