Netvibes, the personal start page provider, has lost one of its CEOs. Pierre Chappaz is leaving Netvibes to focus his attention on Wikio, the personalized blog and news search service.
Based on Chappaz' parting remarks, the split didn't go so well, and was a result of the ongoing difference in opinion between Chappaz and Netvibes' other CEO, Tariq Krim. It seems that the straw that broke the camel's back may have been the disagreements regarding the future of Netvibes' Universes, the branded start page option that has yet to be fully released for user customization and sharing purposes. Facing competition from existing communications portals such as Google, Yahoo and AOL is raising some questions on how to best monetize Netvibes. Adding fuel to the fire is undoubtedly Pageflakes most recent announcement of Pagecasts Blizzard, enabling users to create their own shareable start page.
See also: 14 Personalized Homepages Compared, Feature by Feature