Industry Moves: Clarizio Out At Platform-A; Former Yahoo Exec Greg Coleman Steps In As Replacement
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Less than a year after she stepped in for Curt Viebranz as president of AOL's Platform-A (NYSE: TWX), Lynda Clarizio is exiting the post and will be replaced by former Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) ad exec Greg Coleman, AllThingsD reported and paidContent has confirmed. The move apparently occurred suddenly, just within the past week, Kara Swisher said.
The news comes a week after AOL CEO Randy Falco said the Time Warner unit was going to lay 10 percent of its workforce and reorganize its international staffs as well. The news also comes ahead of Time Warner's earnings report tomorrow morning. The news on the AOL front is expected to be disappointing, as the company has warned that display ad revenues have been trending downward. The pullback in ad spending has hit AOL hard the past few months.
Lacking in "nitty-gritty"?: Citing unidentified sources, Kara said AOL execs felt that Clarizio lacked the "nitty-gritty" sales acumen that the company desperately needs to pull out of its current slump. Clarizio, an AOL vet has held a number of leadership posts in her roughly 10 years at the company, but her background was not in sales. Before joining AOL's ad net unit Advertising.com in May 2006, Clarizio, was an EVP at AOL in charge of strategy, finance and business development of AOL's Audience business. Clarizio has also been an SVP for corporate strategic and financial planning, as well as an SVP for acquisitions and strategic investments. In the latter role, she led AOL's acquisition of Advertising.com. Clarizio came to AOL from the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter, where she was a partner for seven years.
By David Kaplan