• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 17, 2006

The surprising shake-up at AOL this week, that saw chairman Jonathan Miller ousted in favor of NBC Universal's Randy Falco, was cheered by brokerage house Merrill Lynch.

In a report issued this morning, research analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said the shift bodes well for the company. "Falco's decision to join AOL is a strong signal that AOL's transition is on track, as it seems unlikely he would join believing that its transition was going to be unsuccessful," Cohen wrote. "It may also suggest that Time Warner is serious when it says it is not planning for a sale of AOL."

Merrill Lynch also wrote that Falco's experience in TV should help AOL as it revamps from a subscription-based Internet access provider to an ad-supported portal. His experience in TV should help AOL develop and monetize online video, while his TV industry experience might help the company forge links with other Time Warner properties, states the report.

While Merrill Lynch was bullish on the change, not everyone was as enthusiastic. Netscape general manager Jason Calacanis, who sold Weblogs to AOL for $25 million last year, and then refashioned Netscape as a collaborative news site along the lines of Digg.com, resigned yesterday. "I'm not inclined to start over with a new guy," he confirmed to The New York Times after the blog Techcrunch reported he was leaving.

It's that time of year again! Deadline for entering OMMA magazine's Agency of the Year awards for 2006 is Nov. 20. Click: https://www.mediapost.com/aoysub/ to submit your entry. Thank you.