AOL overhaul on the horizon
AOL Time Warner's troubled America Online unit is expected to announce within 10 days a reorganization that will alter the reporting structure among its employees.
Decisions are currently being made about how executives will be shuffled and how the operating structure will look, but nothing has been set in stone.
"It has been well known and widely expected that there are reorganization plans under way," said AOL spokesman John Buckley. "The company will make an announcement at the time it is ready to do so."
The announcement could come within 10 days, according to a source familiar with the plan. The planned reorganization comes shortly after former USA Networks executive Jonathan Miller was tapped as the division's CEO.
Miller was brought in last month to try to turn the division around. AOL has been dogged by an accounting scandal involving its business affairs division that has sparked an informal investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. More troublesome, online advertising revenue for the division has nose-dived, and subscriber growth has shown signs of slowing.
On the personnel front, the company recently fired David Colburn, AOL's head of business affairs, who is being investigated by the SEC. Robert Pittman, AOL Time Warner's former chief operating officer, left the company after being demoted to fix AOL's revenue problems.
Although AOL's Buckley declined to discuss any personnel matters affected by the coming changes, speculation is rife about whom Miller will retain in his upper echelon. In April, Pittman appointed James de Castro to run the flagship AOL service. But de Castro's standing in the company remains a question now that Miller has taken the helm. Meanwhile, AOL veteran and former President Ted Leonsis has taken a more visible role in the company as vice chairman by making appearances in the media to promote AOL.
Buckley declined to comment on the future of de Castro and Leonsis in the company.