Rightmove Appoints New CFO and Pours Cold Water on Large Scale Redundancy Rumours

After recent redundancy news around rivals OnTheMarket and Zoopla, there had been speculation in the comments of the UK estate agency press that Rightmove was also planning to make a large number of its staff redundant as well. The British market-leading portal was moved to put the record straight and this morning gave Property Industry Eye a statement saying that “A couple of teams are going through a restructure which will result in just under ten redundancies”. The statement did not specify which departments would be affected.

Much as with the redundancies at Zoopla and OnTheMarket, the planned job losses look very much like normal restructuring rather than anything truly enforced by a perilous financial situation, not least because Rightmove’s new CFO, Alison Dolan, will be on a wages and bonuses package worth £1.75 million. 

Commenting on the appointment, CEO Peter Brookes-Johnson said:

“We are delighted to welcome Alison to Rightmove, with her extensive commercial and strategic expertise and a strong background in digital media services, Alison will be a valuable addition to Rightmove’s leadership team.”

Dolan joins the portal company from a position as Chief Strategy Officer for the print media branch of the Murdoch-owned News Corp which includes reviled tabloid The Sun. As such, UK agents can be sure that Dolan will not be phased by playing the role of the bad guy.