Reuters reports top execs at AOL are leaving the company .. including evp James Bankoff ... as Nick Denton's Valleywag reported earlier this week ... to many peoples' shock and disappointment. The story.
Disclaimer: I own shares of Time Warner (TWX).
Update: GigaOm says it's heard Calacanis has resigned. Techcrunch agrees. So does Valleywag.
In today's episode, we are introduced to an executive from a TV network, Randy Falco of NBC (GE). Coincidentally, two of NBC’s shows (Studio 60, 30 Rock) depict that company's executives as clueless no nothings. Falco is replacing Jon Miller as CEO of AOL.
We should have seen it coming.
The closest person AOL has to a founder, still on staff, Ted Leonsis, announced a few months ago he was stepping out of active management in January. Anyone want to bet that's about the time the wheels were set
in motion to make a switch? September is also when the company's stock began
a 17% rise.
Back in the summer, AOL's (TWX) most visible executive, Jason Calacanis, also started getting involved with podcasts. He wangled invitations to Leo Laporte's TWIT, became a regular on Steve Gilmor's "Gang," and finally announced plans to have his own show through John Furrier's Podtech.net. More than a year ago, Calacanis said podcasts would never amount to anything. Times change.
I'm predicting Calacanis is going to make a change, too. On those podcasts, he's sounded like a guy with a lot of energy, ideas, patience, and passion - not to mention money - who knows there's another startup in his future. This could be the tipping point.
On his blog, Calacanis calls the announcement of Falco’s hiring, "a very sad day." He lauds Miller as "a quiet (unselfish) samurai of a leader" who put up with Calacanis' antics, knowing the genius effort easily paid for the broken china.
Come the New Year, Leonsis is outta there. Miller probably gone by then. Calacanis will be, too. He’s said that if he didn’t finish 2006 as a top company executive, it would be time to move on. He won't. There will be new guys getting new AOL business cards. Falco has people he wants to work with. So does Calacanis. They both will. Just not together. Different worlds.
The arrival of a 30-year NBC veteran to run AOL is not likely to excite the staying-behind cubicle workers. But for shareholders like me, (holding since the mid 1990's), that's probably good. The cost cutting and layoffs, revolutionizing the business model -- the heavy lifting's been done.
It might even be “business as usual.” Which would be a change.
Nick Denton is a LOT less optimistic than I am.
Disclaimer: I own shares of Time Warner.
The Washington Post published a positive story about America Online . On a Saturday, when it won't immediately affect the stock.
Reads like they got AOL's top guys, Jonathan Miller and Ted Leonsis, in a room to talk about life after subscription fees. Miller told the reporter that when he found out that more than a million new people had signed up for AOL software and e-mail after the move, he said something like "Oh my God, it's working." Hmmm. Saying you're amazed that your plan works is kind of unsettling, especially to shareholders, of whom I am one.
Harken back, also, to this week's earnings report, when Richard Parsons was queried about Miller's suggestion that AOL possibly could be sold off. The chairman made clear he considers AOL's Internet presence to be a core of Time Warner now. ""As I sometimes say, 'Everywhere it rains, I want to have a bucket," Parsons told The New York Times. "We need to have this in our kit bag because this is where money is going."
Maybe Miller just lets his guard down with reporters. The company's PR people say the "for sale" story was an "absolute distortion."
A new spam subject line has found its way into my personal e-mailbox. "Attention: Your AOL Account Could get Suspended." Since I don't have an AOL account, this e-mail means to me, AOL's picking up some strength. Disclaimer: I own shares of Time Warner (TWX).
The message from "alerts@aol.com" explains there's been a problem "processing your billing information for the month of July, 2006. To restore my account, all I need do is click a link and "update ... billing information." The message is signed, "The AOL Billing Services Team." Yeah, right!
This is my first AOL-phishing exploit. And the fact that spammers now think AOL users are targets, just like PayPal's, EBay's, and Cialis', suggests to me that AOL's making some headway reinventing itself.
PaidContent.org posted an "Organization Update from Jon Miller" memo. The CEO says changes are needed because of the company's business model shift from paid access to free Web portal and services. MarketWatch's Ben Charney also has the story.
Highlights:
Disclaimer: I own shares of Time Warner
GoDaddy and 1and1.com not going to like this.
AOL (TWX) is giving away access to new personalized Web domains with its just-launched free service that lets Internet users create personalized e-mail. Addresses can use either the .com or .net domains and AOL will cover the registration cost, and will own the domain. Sign up for the "My eAddress" service can be done at domains.aol.com. Registered users can have as many as 100 addresses at the domain. They get 2 GB of e-mail storage, an address book, and e-mail access from any Web-connected computer.
"Coming soon," according to a spokeswoman, will be the opportunity for people to have their own Web sites at those domains, too. These personal Web sites will be part of the social networking service, AIM Pages, which is now testing.
Disclaimer: I own shares of Time Warner
AOL (TWX) cut the cyber-ribbon Tuesday morning on its expanded entertainment site, AOL Music. Visitors were invited to listen to as much music as they want, watch free videos and, oh yes, get software to copy "any DVD."
AOL said subscribers, paying $10 to $15 a month, will be able to transfer tracks and videos to Windows-compatible portable devices, choosing from a library of 2.5 million songs from four major labels. AOL Music is offering a free 30-day trial to the subscription service.
Non-subscribers can play music videos through their Web browser. Each is preceded by an advertisement. The can also listen to music streams from AOL and XM (XMSR), and purchase tracks a la carte. Even though the subscription service is Windows-friendly, there's a link to make purchases from Apple Computer's (AAPL) iTunes Music Store.
But wait, look at that ^. I can't help but think how pleased the music labels must be at the fact the AOL Music home page also carried text ads this morning to help me "Copy any DVD to a blank CD." I guess you can't choose all your friends.
Disclaimer: I own shares of Time Warner, the parent of AOL.
New York magazine reports that the chairman of Time Warner (TWX) wants to be Mayor of New York City. "Insiders say that it’s all but official (he will run)." While a spokeswoman told the magazine Richard Parsons will manage the company through 2008, per his contract, New York speculates he could hand over CEO duties to president and COO Jeff Bewkes well before then.
Could this be why Carl Icahn bought 4 million more shares in the last three months? Because he thinks Parsons will leave soon?
Disclaimer: I own shares of Time Warner.
"According to Nielsen/NetRatings (NTRT), unique visitors (to the new Netscape "social bookmarking" news site), fell from 14.41 million in July 2005 to 7.81 million in July of this year," says Douglas McIntyre at 24/7 Wall St. Month-to-month, he reported July's visitor count at Netscape.com was off 19% from June's. McIntyre says, "AOL may have to come up with another formula for Netscape."
My bet is Jason Calacanis, the GM at Netscape (TWX), and who is rapidly becoming the "voice" of AOL, will say this is better than expected.
A week or so ago, the 35-year-old multi-millionaire warned Netscape's traffic would be down. One reason he cited was a change in Netscape's e-mail functionality. Another was a shift by Hewlett Packard's (HPQ) computers to display AOL.com as their default Internet home page, rather than Netscape.com. And the other reason, of course, was the change in Netscape's format.
Calacanis will say that given all these factors, plus the steady erosion in Netscape visitors that's been going on for a year anyway, being off less than 20% after a format switch ain't that bad.
<<<<< Also, it's interesting to see that Calacanis is personally pointing out items he thinks people should see, even if they are about himself .
Ted Leonsis says these are tough, dark times at AOL, thanks to the stupid posting of hundreds of thousands of search tracks. Less than a week after detailing plans for yet another "new" AOL, the company gets another black eye.
The vice chairman of AOL blogged, "I personally feel just awful about it. After we have worked so hard to build our users' trust and protect their privacy for so many years, a single mistake can put it all at risk." More.
The furor has cooled. At least it's no longer the lead at TechMeme. Google's Eric Schmidt says the "data spill" has not caused his company to stop storing such information. "We are reasonably satisfied ... that this sort of thing would not happen at Google (GOOG), although you can never say never." Schmidt also said he hadn't discussed the incident with AOL (TWX) execs, "but questioned his business partner's judgment," an Associated Press report added.
Disclaimer: I own shares of both AOL and Google.
Recent Comments