Netscape loses blog maven Calacanis
Blog entrepreneur Jason Calacanis has left AOL, days after the company replaced Jonathan Miller with a new chief.
Calacanis didn't give a reason on his blog, but did tell the New York Times that "I'm not inclined to start over with a new guy."
The outspoken Calacanis sold his blog network to AOL last year, and took over the job of transforming the giant's Netscape site. Part of that job involved a controversial plan that for links they sent to a social bookmarking page.
Much of the blogger reaction focused on what the move would mean to Netscape, and where Calacanis was headed next.
Blog community response:
"While the wild speculation can begin about who is going to be taking the helm of Netscape (will it be an existing Navigator?!), if Netscape continues in the form its in, you can bet it has lost a personality that keeps Netscape in the news, and people interested in the company. The alternative, of course, is that AOL, Netscape's parent company, shutters Netscape as it is - since it doesn't have the same evangelists within the company. No more paid navigators, no more social bookmarking, no more 'mature' rival to Digg and Reddit."
--Deep Jive Interests
"Personal prickliness aside, I think Jason has been doing his best to remake Netscape into something substantial, although I still don't know whether paying the top posters at Digg and Reddit to work for him was really the best strategy. But hey - it got lots of press, both real and blogospheric, and that's something."
--Mathew Ingram
"It really should come as no surprise Calacanis is moving on because it was only a question of when, not if, given he's an wealthy entrepreneur who is working for a large corporation - and everyone knows entrepreneurs don't thrive in large, bureaucratic corporations, right? So what does Calacanis do next? Well, clearly he believes in the online advertising model given his excitement about the IAB numbers earlier this week. The question is whether his severance agreement with AOL precludes him from working for a user-generated company or, for that matter, an online company that generates revenue from advertising."
--Mark Evans