Ending (for the moment) what has been a highly embarrassing episode for AOL and its top executives, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington agreed this week to walk away from the tech blog he sold
to AOL last year.
Noting the news at the very end of an internal memo this week, AOL head Tim Armstrong insisted: "The TechCrunch acquisition has been a success for AOL and for our
shareholders" -- adding that AOL would still be investing in Arrington's new VC fund.
"Tim, in old-timey journalism, that's called burying the lede," ribs All Things D's Kara Swisher. In Arrington's place, longtime TechCrunch staffer Erick Schonfeld has
been named the editor of the blog.
The news represents a minor victory for AOL, which, last week, came under pressure from Arrington to either sell TechCrunch back to its original owners
or grant it editorial independence. "AOL apparently decided against either option" -- without incurring (it seems) any additional enmity from Arrington -- notes MercuryNews.com.
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According to The New York Times, part of what drew AOL to TechCrunch -- and ultimately led to
its $30 million acquisition of the blog -- was Arrington's outspoken, controversial nature. Arrington, however, "turned out to be a little too controversial for AOL." Iis Arrington
really out of AOL's hair? Hard to believe considering the company still plans to invest (a reported $10 million) in Arrington's CrunchFunch venture.
In a Twitter post Monday,
Arrington teased Arianna Huffington, head of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group, tweeting: "ok @ariannahuff. Let's go ahead and talk about how this really played out."