FT waves goodbye to COO

Murphy, who is to pursue a more entrepreneurial role, is expected to stay on in a reduced capacity until April, working on special projects with managing director Olivier Fleurot.

During the last year, Murphy has had the difficult task of restructuring the online operations of the FT group at a time when the dotcom bubble was bursting and ad revenues plummeting.

Once one of Pearson's most high profile operations, he was required to cut back almost 80m worth of savings on the service.

The company cut back on around 150 jobs and sold off non-financial titles, with high profile stand-alone ventures such as FTMarketwatch being folded back into the main FT.com site.

The news comes as Fleurot takes responsibility for the FT group overall, following the decision by chief executive Stephen Hill to stand aside and lead a management buyout of its magazine publishing group FT Business.