MarcPorcelli.com

AOL + Platform A = For Sale Sign

I remember when I was just getting onto the Internet as a kid living in New Jersey. I had a Macintosh PowerPC and a blazing fast V.22 USRobotics dial-up modem at blazing speeds of 1,200 bps! I even had a fancy computer desk from MacMall. Those where the days of telnet and newsgroups. I made my first thousands as a young teenager through AOL buying and selling video games and systems through a newsletter that I started through AOL Games. I have very found memories of AOL; they literally have “America Online.”

Readers of this blog will recall my post last month, Platform-A: Is There Any Value? Clearly this is a question that AOL is asking itself. As the company continues to unravel, it is rumored Time Warner has had enough. What is AOL’s Future? Yesterday came the announcement that Cutis G. Viebranz had left the company and was replaced by Lynda Clarizio who ran Advertising.com. The New York Times reports that she was “the executive who had been battling his strategy through the fall.” Viebranz is now the third of four top executives in less than a year to have left Platform A. Clearly there is a problem and Platform A is in trouble just as its parent company AOL has been in for years.

AOL of course has been on an acquisition rampage lately, most recently acquiring buy.at, a European affiliate network. Viebranz was fired because he did not move quickly enough. It remains to be seen if Platform A under Clarizio’s leadership can move at the speed that AOL executives expect.

As an advertiser, Platform A does sound appealing, but it also sounds like it could be a significant waste of money based on how the company manages itself as a whole. Platform A is located in NY which means it is going after agency money. This may equate to the blind leading the blind when it comes to online marketing. Viebranz has the task of providing vision, but that’s going to be an uphill battle. Her first move will be to trim even more of the fat. Watch out for large layoffs in the near future. It has also been rumored that they are in merger talks with Yahoo and are potentially looking for a buyer.