Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse–famous for his controversial “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” which correctly chided the Internet giant for becoming so lugubrious several years ago–is taking a job at AOL very similar to the one he left at Yahoo last year.

Garlinghouse, who will remain on the West Coast, will be named president of Internet and mobile communications at AOL, putting him in charge of the New York-based Time Warner online unit’s powerful email and instant-messaging properties, including ICQ and AIM.

He will also be, said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, its “CEO of Silicon Valley for us.”

Read More »

After a while–in a BoomTown mangling of the old cliché–if you are a nail, everything begins to look like a hammer.

So, it is probably inevitable that the next thing for much-beleaguered AOL staffers to start rumbling about is 2,000 people getting laid off next week.

After all, the Time Warner unit has a long history of whacking employees. So, it is easier to assume things will not be different under the regime of the latest CEO, Tim Armstrong.

Except it’s not actually true that such massive cuts are in the offing, since–as many sources I spoke to said–Armstrong is in the early part of figuring out what to do about the cost structure of AOL, after laying out a company strategy and rejiggering management.

Read More »

Here’s a very funny video, called “Digital Media Musical Chairs,” from a Wall Street type who goes by the code name L. McDuff.

It’s about the many switcheroos in recent years among the execs at the big Web outfits like Google, Time Warner unit AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft .

And when you look at it from a “Hollywood Squares” point of view, it’s kind of is amazing to realize that there are only about a dozen Internet execs moving in and out of the various jobs.

Read More »

More musical chairs at Yahoo, which BoomTown predicted recently, as top execs at the company move in and out of jobs, and new ones from the outside move in.

Perhaps the most important change to occur is the replacement this week of SVP Scott Dietzen–who had been in charge of all communications and communities products at Yahoo–by former Adobe Systems exec Bryan Lamkin, several sources said.

And there’s even more…

Read More »

BoomTown has confirmed a report that former AOL head Jon Miller is set to take over as digital head at News Corp., replacing Peter Levinsohn.

But Miller has not actually signed up for the job officially, since he is still under a noncompete agreement with Time Warner from his AOL stint. It runs out in three days, in fact.

But sources said News Corp. is likely to announce Miller as its “chief digital officer” by Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Once he does sign, which seems likely, Miller will be reporting directly to the media giant’s head, Rupert Murdoch. Based in New York, he will also be chairman and CEO of the newly created News Digital Media group.

Read More »

When she reorganized the Yahoo management ranks three weeks ago, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz left some glaring empty spaces in her management chart, including for a chief financial officer, the top international exec and a new post for a customer advocacy czar.

So, who should get the nod for each? But might BoomTown suggest closet geek and good-thing expert Martha Stewart for Yahoo’s consumer guru?

Read More »

Neeraj Khemlani, Yahoo’s general manager and executive editor of news, is set to leave his job–right in the midst of a major restructuring of its media unit–to work at Hearst Corp.

Khemlani’s departure could be announced to his staff at Yahoo as early as today.

While Khemlani was in line to head one of the three main prongs of the new content organization, running a possible network programming arm, sources inside and outside Yahoo said he instead has opted to take a job as VP and Special Assistant to the CEO for Digital Media at Hearst.

Read More »

While there are layoffs all over now, as evidenced by the dismal jobs reports last week, the long-planned Yahoo layoffs will definitely be taking place Wednesday. The layoff number was announced by its (eventually outgoing) CEO Jerry Yang on its last earnings call on Oct. 21. BoomTown wrote about the exact timing of the sad date a few weeks ago. Many Yahoos have emailed me to ask the particulars last week, since most at the company don’t know what’s up. Here’s what I found out.

Read More »