AOL's Platform A Lays Off 100 Employees

(MoneyWatch)  Whoops. After I said it looked like Platform A had dodged a bullet last week, after landing a rather large deal with Viacom and placing first among comScore's ad network rankings, the company announced plans to lose 100 employees over the weekend. From the Washington Post story:

Deciding on where and how many jobs to cut was a top priority for Lynda Clarizio, who replaced Curt Viebranz as Platform-A president last month. Viebranz was ousted over disagreements over Platform-A's budgeting, as well as over steps regarding the integration of the six separate units within the network.

One source, who didn't want to be identified, said that Viebranz was forced out largely because he disagreed with AOL CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant over which unit would manage ad sales tied to behavioral targeting -- Tacoda or Advertising.com. Although Tacoda specializes in behavioral targeting, senior executives wanted to subordinate its sales force to display ad net Advertising.com, which was acquired by AOL in 2004 and has been considered one of the unit's major success stories. Tacoda was bought by AOL last summer and at the time was headed by Viebranz, who was named president of Platform-A last September...

After noting a series of departures by senior Tacoda staff already reported in ClickZ, the Post reports that sources say "more voluntary departures are coming over the next few weeks as well." Scary times at Platform A, without a doubt.