Perkins Miller has quietly stepped down as CEO of Fandom after six years leading the wiki hosting giant through major acquisitions and mounting user frustration. The departure, confirmed exclusively to The Verge last week, leaves the entertainment platform under interim leadership as it grapples with ad-heavy user experiences and recent layoffs that have defined Miller's tenure.
The news broke quietly, but Perkins Miller's exit from Fandom represents the end of an era marked by aggressive expansion and growing user revolt. After six years at the helm of the world's largest wiki hosting platform, Miller stepped down last week with no fanfare and no immediate successor, leaving the company scrambling under interim leadership.
Katie Schroeder, speaking for Fandom, confirmed to The Verge that Miller "is no longer working for Fandom" but offered little insight into the circumstances. The timing feels telling - Miller's departure comes as the platform faces mounting criticism over user experience issues that have become synonymous with the Fandom brand.
Miller's tenure was defined by bold acquisition moves that transformed Fandom from a wiki-focused platform into an entertainment content conglomerate. The crown jewel was his $50 million purchase of entertainment properties from Red Ventures in 2022, bringing TV Guide, Metacritic, GameSpot, and Giant Bomb under Fandom's umbrella. "We want to expand our business capabilities and provide immersive content for our partners, advertisers and fans," Miller said at the time, painting a vision of cross-platform synergy.
But that expansion came at a cost. The acquisitions triggered multiple rounds of layoffs across editorial teams, with further cuts hitting properties like Screen Junkies. During an all-hands meeting last October, Miller pointed to "corporate restructuring and missed revenue targets" as driving factors behind the 11% workforce reduction.
Meanwhile, Fandom's core wiki business became increasingly notorious for poor user experience. The platform's aggressive advertising strategy - featuring auto-playing videos, pop-ups, and banner ads that often crash mobile browsers - has made many of its IP-focused wikis nearly unusable. Users regularly complain about pages that freeze, load slowly, or become unresponsive due to ad overload.