Last.fm Founders To Step Down

Martin Stiksel, Felix Miller and Richard Jones will leave the Old Street-based Last.fm at the end of the month, though will remain as advisers through the summer. Having founded Last.fm seven years ago, they sold it to CBS in 2007 in a deal worth $280 million; in an interview with Londonist at the time, Stiksel told us that the money meant they'd be able to "do all the crazily ambitious things we’ve been dreaming of doing for years". Since then the company has expanded rapidly: the audience has tripled over the past year alone to a high of 37 million users, and with the site established as a major player in the competetive online music scene, the founders feel that their work is done and they're eager to work on new challenges. Hopefully they'll stay rooted in the burgeoning east London digital startup environment that they helped to establish.