AOL Re-Org Unveiled: Six Business Units Will Report To COO Ron Grant
I’m sure this will spread fast but you probably are reading it here first ... As we reported Friday, AOL Chairman and CEO Randy Falco is unveiling the Time Warner unit’s new structure today. From the Falco memo that just went out to AOL employees:
“I want to focus first on the functional areas that I will have reporting to me. I will have eight direct reports, beginning with Ted Leonsis, our Vice Chairman, and of course Ron (Grant) as COO. Steve Swad, Finance; Ira Parker, Legal; Lance Miyamoto, Human Resources; and Tiane Mitchell Gordon, Diversity and Inclusion will all report to me. Additionally, reporting to me will be Tricia Primrose Wallace, who will step up to become head of Corporate Communications. ... In addition, we will be appointing a Chief Marketing Officer to help us manage the AOL brand and oversee the company’s consumer marketing efforts.
Reporting to Ron will be our business units: Products, Programming, Platforms, AOL Media Networks, Paid Services, and International. And because smoothly integrating our technology resources into the business units has been such a priority, Ron also will have the Chief Technology Officer report to him.”
The structure, which I was told last week would be logical, is just that. The old AOL had a lot of criss-crossing wires; this version—at least on the proverbial paper—appears to be more clear cut. The business unit heads (the memo doesn’t include titles for these posts.):
—Products: Kevin Conroy. “In addition to driving continued improvements in mail, the client, portals, video and video search, storage, and our safety and security products, Kevin’s group will now oversee our AIM and mobile products. Kevin’s group will also include the technology resources recently assigned these product areas.”
—Programming: Bill Wilson, as expected. ” Bill will focus on improving our existing programming experiences while developing new ones, either internally or through partnerships on the model of TMZ and Lat34.”
—Platforms: TBD. Search, commerce, local-based services including MapQuest. “We are currently in discussions with possible candidates for this role and hope to make an announcement soon.”
—AOL Media Networks: Mike Kelly. I wasn’t sure this would work out this way given Falco’s advertising backbround and the usual new-exec temptation to bring in someone familiar. “Mike Kelly continues in his role as head of AMN, which includes advertising sales, client solutions and Advertising.com. Mike has done an outstanding job rebuilding and re-energizing AOL’s ad sales, and the results—46% growth in Q3, for example—bear this out.”
—Paid Services: Kim Partoll. “Even with our shift to an advertising business model, managing our relationship with our millions of subscribers, as well as offering them new services, remains an important element of our strategy.”
—International: TBD. Perhaps the most gaping strategic hole. “We already have strong portals in the UK, France and Germany, and just launched portals in Austria and the Netherlands. We are also looking to launch our India portal soon and are pursuing other opportunities in Asia, South America, and so on. We will be announcing a new leader for International in the near future.”
Not a business unit but new CTO Balan Nair also will report to Grant; Nair, a recent hire, was chief information officer.
The memo makes official what we’ve already reported: the departures of Jim Bankoff, Randy Boe, John Buckley and Joe Redling. John McKinley is included in the group but he had already announced plans to leave.
—Falco acknowledges the most recent re-org by former Chairman and CEO Jon Mille. Falco: “I believe that there were many important and correct decisions made regarding the structure of the organization as announced by Jon Miller earlier this fall. At the same time, having reviewed the structure, Ron and I believe that it can be tighter, clearer, and better focused on operations. It’s our desire to instill greater focus on execution.”
Update: We’ve posted the memo and org chart here.
More to come.
Posted In: Companies, Time Warner, AOL
Comments (13)
Apr 22, 2007 2:56 PM
WHY did the AOL Portfolio Direct Report stop? The last report received was
April 7th, 2007.
AOL has provided this service to us for many, many years?
Please respond.
Thank you, B Noujaim
Apr 28, 2007 9:20 AM
Why was AOL Portfolio Direct Report removed?? Will it start again?? Is there anything I can use in its place???
Apr 29, 2007 2:39 PM
Why has Postfolio Direct been discontinued? Has It been replaced with something else? Why were user not informed?
Do I need to discontinue AOL to get service that is important to me such as the above?
Apr 30, 2007 9:40 PM
I have used aol. portfolio direct for many years. I find that it miss it a great deal. I realize that it is probably futile to complain, so I must seek comparable information codified in a similar way, elsewhere.
This is AWFUL!!
Sincerely, Dan Braman .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
May 2, 2007 11:17 PM
We have recently experienced some technical issues with the delivery of our Portfolio Direct service, which we are addressing. However, there is no intention to discontinue the product. In fact, we have plans to upgrade the service to provide our users an even more robust experience.
- AOL Money & Finance Product Team
May 3, 2007 6:16 PM
It is the only reason I use Aol. Without the portfolio Direct Report AOL has no9 value to me, There are other ways of getting on the internet.
May 7, 2007 11:23 PM
I have been without AOL Portfolio Direct for over a week now-when will it resume? Without it I have no reason to maintain a relationship with AOL at all! Please respond.
Jul 18, 2007 9:23 PM
I am still receiving daily updates of AOL Portfolio Direct Report. However, I have not been able to access the program to add or remove stocks/funds. Could you provide the website address, please.
Sep 1, 2007 6:21 AM
finance.yahoo.com assows you to create as many portfolios as you wish and to edit each of them when you wish and access them when you wish. The cost of real time finance.yahoo.com is 9.95 and offers more than any other service, I think. You name the portfolio and you see a list of all and then you edit them. This portfolio only gives you quotes and you may give each separate criterial of, such as volume, premarket, aftermarket, volume, last, previous, and about 30 or more criterial.
Nov 23, 2007 6:21 PM
I would like to keep the aol portfolio direct and weekend report. Is the only way to keep it if your an aol member or any web site can get it. I am on Yahoo now.
Dec 27, 2007 12:51 PM
Why can’t I remove old stocks and add new ones?
Mar 29, 2008 7:23 PM
I can understand AOL having technical and financial problems, but I cannot condone the lack of an announcement, at least to paid AOL subscribers. How difficult would it be to send an email or even an announcement on the weekly AOL updates? I have been using the daily Portfolio Direct Report for many years, and I even print out the weekly report for my reference binder.
Oct 17, 2008 10:22 PM
For many years downloaded daily AOL Portfolio Direct daily and weekend Report - that mid year was replaced BRIEFLY with: Portfolio by Email that quit in september 2008 that I also downloaded daily and on weekend. Sure do miss this. Earlier in October I registered on-line for a new Bata system that appeard similar, but have NOT GOT NILL???
It appears that:AOL don’t, or ignores, their users, and that $$$$$ is more important than people, whom, without us, AOL would NOT EXIST! If so…I sure hope they/you do choke on the money and enjoy it??? !!! Why not put-out why you hav’nt continued and inform us users if you again plan to resume this wonderfull stuff for us “stock owners/traders benefit” that puts us in better shape to compete with Wall Street (never will happen though), but worth the thought, and hope, we have some ability to play in their game with full transparenty with our money.