While there were reports that the Time Warner board was meeting today to approve the spin-off of its AOL online unit, it actually gave the move an “enthusiastic endorsement” last night, according to sources.

Time Warner just put out the press release about the move that would make AOL an “independent, publicly traded company.”

But, several sources with knowledge of the situation said AOL CEO and Chairman Tim Armstrong is set to make massive changes to the structure of AOL, sweeping aside its current set-up almost completely.

That includes keeping the access business, which many thought would be sold off and putting many of the companies it has recently acquired–including its pricey Bebo social networking site–in a separate ventures unit, which will try to attract outside investment.

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According to an internal memo obtained by BoomTown, Joanna Shields, who came to AOL via its troubled acquisition of the Bebo social-networking site, will be returning to London to spend more time with her family and to “pursue entrepreneurial interests.”

Until recently, People Networks has been the third leg of the Time Warner-owned online site’s businesses, which also include advertising and content.

But under new CEO Tim Armstrong, who was one of the top sales execs at Google, AOL is largely abandoning its business-unit approach for a more functional and centralized structure.

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Platform-A President Greg Coleman–the former Yahoo advertising sales exec who came to AOL only three months ago–is leaving the company, sources said, as new CEO Tim Armstrong remakes his top staff in preparation to spin off the Time Warner online unit.

Coleman was brought to AOL by former CEO Randy Falco in February, replacing Lynda Clarizio, and will be replaced by a Google ad exec, Jeff Levick.

Armstrong, sources said, announced the moves to his staff tonight, right after he told Coleman about his decision late today.

Also out: CFO Nisha Kumar, who came to AOL in early 2007 from Time Warner, owner of the online unit.

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The undoing of previous management of AOL continues at the Time Warner online unit with even more reorganization of its Platform-A advertising unit.

Sources said the changes are part of a simplifying of the division, one of three at AOL (the others are communications and content).

Platform-A head Greg Coleman penned a memo about the changes, which went out to staff this morning and is below in its entirety.

Headline: Execs moving in and out of musical chairs and fewer cooks in the kitchen, or “more people on the street selling.”

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This is is just too cute to pass up. Apparently, some staffers at AOL are using a teeny-weeny cartoon of new CEO Tim Armstrong as the icon on their instant messaging program.

Since he got the job, the big version of Armstrong has been busy making the rounds, even though he does not officially start until April 7.

He’s been talking up many current and former AOLers–many from its glory days–to learn as much as he can about what he needs to do to force the once-mighty online icon back to relevance.

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First came the go-go hello email, and now new AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong will address all the troops tomorrow at 11 am EST and has chosen to do so from, of all places, AOL’s old center of power in Dulles, Virginia.

Many at AOL hope that Armstrong will quickly and transparently lay out plans for a spin-out of the Time Warner online unit from the media conglomerate, where it has languished for years.

And sources said Armstrong could further up the ante and help raise the layoff-weary morale by having some former AOL execs from its glory days as the top online player in person at the event.

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BoomTown has a feeling the very friendly new AOL CEO and Chairman, Tim Armstrong, is not going to waste his time chasing down and threatening to drop-kick leakers into outerspace.

At least I hope he has better things to do! Like, you know, turning around the troubled Time Warner online unit.

So here is his first memo to AOL staffers, leaked to me. (Don’t go all Bartz on me, Tim, because it won’t work anyway!)

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For a tall man, Tim Armstrong has been on an awful lot of online companies’ short lists.

For a big Web exec job, that is. Indeed, whenever one opens up in the Internet space, the 6-foot 3-inch Google ad sales exec always pops up on it as a possible candidate to lead a variety of digital companies and start-ups.

Finally today–after longtime speculation that Armstrong had long wanted and would eventually leave his post at Google in order to try his hand at being top dog–he took over as chairman and CEO of the once-mighty, but now-not-so-much, AOL.

Armstrong, who will start at AOL on April 7, talked to BoomTown this afternoon about his new job.

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Let’s just say the firing of AOL CEO Randy Falco and President Ron Grant was not exactly expected–even if everyone thought it should happen–within the high ranks of the troubled online unit, until Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes dropped the guillotine this afternoon in Manhattan.

And drop it he did, lopping off the pair of executives Bewkes had installed himself. He replaced them with Tim Armstrong, Google’s head of ad sales, a man with a much brighter resume, for what is likely to be an attempt to spin out AOL now that merger options are moribund.

“It’s a shock to everyone how sudden it was,” said one exec, noting that AOL’s top execs had no idea this is coming today. “Everyone talked about when Bewkes was going to run out of patience with Randy and Ron all the time, but no one knew it was coming now, since it had taken so long.”

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Earlier today, Silicon Alley Insider reported that layoffs at AOL, which had been announced in January, were finally taking place.

Actually, said an AOL insider, about 10 percent of the layoffs, or 70 people, have been let go since the announcement. The pace just got ratcheted up today, adding another 300 to the pyre at the troubled Time Warner online division.

But, said several sources, the slashing of staff might go well beyond what has been announced. With the ever-weakening economy, there is still fat to be cut out, especially since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes either has to sell AOL off or make it work a whole lot better.

And working better most likely means more cuts–and a whole lot more of them.

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Another Web company, another management restructuring!

Yahoo reorg fever struck AOL today too, as its advertising head, Greg Coleman (pictured here), moved the exec chairs around his domain at AOL’s Platform-A unit.

Coleman–who actually once was Yahoo’s sales head before taking the new gig at the Time Warner online unit earlier this month–is replacing some execs and elevating others.

You know the drill!

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Yahoo’s not the only place BoomTown gets internal memos from!

Here’s two corporate missive about big changes in AOL’s international–such that it is–unit, as the head–Maneesh Dhir (pictured here)–moves on.

The longtime staffer at the Time Warner unit will “return to his entrepreneurial roots,” according to a memo from AOL CEO Randy Falco below.

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As BoomTown reported earlier today, I just got sent the entire internal email–penned and just sent out by AOL CEO Randy Falco–about the replacement of its Platform-A President Lynda Clarizio with former Yahoo top advertising sales exec Greg Coleman.

An AOL press release has also gone out about the move, made to turbocharge the flagging fortunes of its online ad business.

“No doubt Greg is joining Platform-A at a difficult time,” writes Falco in the memo. “The deepening economic recession is affecting every corner of the economy, including our own.”

Translation: Yahoo was kindergarten! Get to work pronto, Greg!

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The game of executive musical chairs among Web companies keeps on going, with sources telling BoomTown that AOL ad head Lynda Clarizio will be departing the online service and be replaced by former high-ranking Yahoo advertising exec Greg Coleman.

The move at AOL, which has been in the works for only a week, could be announced as early as today, although I have been hearing rumors of such a development since late last week.

Both AOL’s content and communications units have been getting an overhaul of late, and now it seems it is time for its lackluster ad business.

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Here is the letter AOL CEO Randy Falco has penned to the entire staff about its layoffs of 10 percent of its workforce–or 700 people–and other cost cuts, which the online service is announcing today.

“We’re at a pivotal point in AOL’s transformation, and need to be even more strategically focused and operationally efficient as we weather the economic storm,” wrote Falco, in part, about the move.

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