AOL To Layoff 100 Staffers Across Platform-A

By David Kaplan - Fri 18 Apr 2008 01:23 PM PST

AOL (NYSE: TWX) plans to lay off roughly 100 staffers from its Platform-A ad agency network over the coming months, sources say, confirming an earlier report from SAI. While roughly a dozen staffers may have been laid off immediately, most will come over several weeks, sources tell us. An AOL rep said that layoffs are planned to eliminate “redundancies,” the company is not specifying how many of Platform-A’s 1,500 staffers are being let go. AOL released a statement: “These steps are necessary to guarantee that Platform-A’s people and technologies are organized around common goals and operate as a seamless organization that is focused on our customers.”

Deciding on where and how many jobs to cut was a top priority for Lynda Clarizio, who replaced Curt Viebranz as Platform-A president last month. Viebranz was ousted over disagreements over Platform-A’s budgeting, as well as over steps regarding the integration of the six separate units within the network.

One source, who didn’t want to be identified, said that Viebranz was forced out largely because he disagreed with AOL CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant over which unit would manage ad sales tied to behavioral targeting - Tacoda or Advertising.com. Although Tacoda specializes in behavioral targeting, senior executives wanted to subordinate its sales force to display ad net Advertising.com, which was acquired by AOL in 2004 and has been considered one of the unit’s major success stories. Tacoda was bought by AOL last summer and at the time was headed by Viebranz, who was named president of Platform-A last September.

Aside from the alleged tug of war between Advertising.com and Tacoda, Platform-A was charged with the difficult job of consolidating the other interactive ad acquisitions AOL has made over the past several months, including contextual advertiser Quigo, streaming media ad specialist Lightningcast, German online ad server Adtech, and mobile ad services provider Third Screen Media. The layoff decision also comes the same week that AOL transplanted 300 staffers from various locations around New York City and its Dulles, Va. headquarters to its new Greenwich Village offices at 770 Broadway.

It was unclear whether any senior posts were being eliminated as part of this round of job cuts. Platform-A has already seen the defection of three high-profile execs, including former Tacoda founder Dave Morgan, who left in February as EVP-Global Advertising Strategy in February to create a start-up; also in February, Kathy Kayse exited as EVP of marketing solutions to work for Discovery Communications (NSDQ: DISCA).

In addition to those departures, the Tacoda unit in particular has seen a string of other senior, if less high-profile, executives leaving within the past few months, including Tacoda CFO Mark Pinney and Dan Jaye, who was CTO and Viebranz’s successor as president of that unit; Larry Allen, Tacoda’s head of business development, and Matt Arkin, who was Tacoda’ ad sales head and was tapped to manage Platform-A’s western region are gone now as well. Our source says more voluntary departures are coming over the next few weeks as well.