Belson back on top: Hooli CEO focuses on the bottom line

Gavin Belson's brilliant leadership is unstoppable. Although he supposedly took a personal hiatus from day-to-day operations at Hooli, Belson couldn't resist a blockbuster deal between Hooli and Maleant Data Systems, deploying Hooli's new Hooli/Endframe box. The multi-year deal brings in handsome margins for Hooli and could easily be a template for the entire Fortune 1000. An inside source tells me, not surprisingly, the board was no longer content to let Belson fade into the background. . Hat in hand, they begged Belson to return to the helm.

What led Belson to this decision remains unclear. Was it a further fallout from the Hooli-Search scandal that we broke on this very blog? Or perhaps his cutthroat methods in managing Hooli-Search results indicate a demand across the board for the highest standards, and as such, Belson could not tolerate the sloppy security updates he also reported on. In any case, it seems that the company's electrical problems are resolved, and with it, any spirituality Belson felt the need to examine. The company's Chief Innovation Officer has returned.

Belson, who is single, has had a ton of success on Hooli this past year. When he announced the dissolution of the Nucleus project, his bravery was rewarded when Hooli's shares rose 7 percent. The cost savings were compounded when Belson triggered company-wide layoffs, and the hole left by Nucleus was quickly filled when he acquired middleman Endframe. Endframe technology has long dominated the in-between space and it's no wonder the Hooli/Endframe relationship has combined Hooli's resources and innovation with Endframe's impressive technology to create something obscenely profitable: the Hooli/Endframe Box.

With Belson back at the top of Hooli, shareholders can breathe a sigh of relief. While Belson's career is certainly not without drama, his astute business sense and his groundbreaking technological achievements are what have shaped Hooli into the company it is today. Without Gavin Belson, there is no Hooli. And without Hooli, where would any of us be?