Forbes, who was with company before it made its market debut and watched it become a blue-chip name, said: "I hand over the chair to Andrew. His experience developing innovative digital businesses will be a great asset to Rightmove."

Fisher was executive chairman of the Shazam, UK-based app that lets users identify songs by pointing a smart phone at the audio source, when Apple Inc reached a deal to buy it in 2017.

Fisher, who is also on the board of Rightmove rival Moneysupermarket.com Group, will join Rightmove in January as Forbes is set to retire from the board at the end of 2019.

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)