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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AOL–which recently has been putting its Socialthing lifestreaming service on a large number of AOL-run Web sites, moving it beyond its Bebo social network–will announce this morning that it will also be launched on another Time Warner property.

According to a press release, Socialthing will also now be part of the Web sites of the Warner Bros. Television Group.

But, more significantly, sources said, AOL’s People Networks has new versions of its AIM and ICQ messengering clients ready that it is preparing to launch soon with new more robust and socialized features.

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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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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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This morning, AOL will launch an updated look for its Bebo social-networking property, with a new “social inbox” profile for its users. It essentially gives its users a one-stop destination, with aggregated social feeds from across the Web, multiple email accounts and media recommendations. But, according to sources, the online service is preparing a more radical series of announcements after the new year, well beyond its release today. Interestingly, the changes to its social-networking and communications properties yet to be announced have been among the things that have impressed Yahoo in its recent merger talks with Time Warner about buying AOL.

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