Activision's Guitar Hero CEO Rosensweig Leaves, Haddad Replaces Him

Daniel Rosensweig has left his post as president and CEO of Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero division to serve in the same roles at textbook rental firm Chegg. The online service, which attracts college student customers by undercutting more expensive textbook vendors, recently raised $112 million in a round of funding. "The opportunity to lead one of Silicon Valley's fastest growing companies that offers real financial value to students is unparalleled," said Rosensweig in a statement. "Chegg.com has a powerful business model and, I believe, the opportunity to transform the textbook industry." It's a relatively quick departure for Rosensweig, who joined Activision just under a year ago after spending several years as a partner with private equity firm Quadrangle Group. During his tenure with the division, he oversaw the launch of Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero and DJ Hero. [UPDATE: According to a post on official Activision blog OneOfSwords, the top Guitar Hero position is now filled by David Haddad, who according to LinkedIn, had served as the franchise's SVP of strategy and business operations since September 2008. UPDATE 2: Activision has now officially confirmed Haddad as president and CEO of the Guitar Hero franchise. Before his work as COO of Guitar Hero, he was formerly Chief Operating Officer of Vivendi Games' Sierra Online division, a division president for Mattel, and an executive manager at firms like the Walt Disney Company and Liveplanet.] Rosensweig's longest tenure was with Ziff-Davis, where he served in numerous capacities over the course of 18 years and headed up the ZDNet division that was spun off and eventually became part of CNet in 2000. Following his affiliation with ZDNet, he worked at Yahoo! as the company's COO for several years. Said Chegg co-founder Osman Rashid, "With Dan's breadth of global business experience and passion for the consumer, we know he is the right person to lead Chegg.com through the next phase of its growth."