LookSmart CEO Hits The Eject Button

Another rocky chapter in LookSmart’s history ended as Hills fled the company a day before they report their second quarter earnings.

That can’t be a good sign.

The company said chairman Edward West will take the president and CEO roles on an interim basis. LookSmart will focus on maintaining existing publisher relationships with search engine Ask.com, and with Wikia, the Jimmy Wales-backed venture that recently acquired distributed search project Grub from them.

Hills intends to start an online media advisory services business now that he has departed LookSmart. Australian IT said LookSmart disclosed this to Australia’s Securities Exchange.

LookSmart’s fortunes have waned ever since the end of the lofty dot-com bubble, and losing Microsoft and its deep pockets as a client. Hills came on board in 2004 to help the company get past that disastrous event, but LookSmart made little progress.

At the height of the dot-com boom, shares of LookSmart traded at $272.50. The stock closed most recently at $3.35.