Digital Media

In preparation for its upcoming spin-off from parent company Time Warner, AOL has named nine members to its board of directors--and from what it sounds like, more additions to the board could be coming.

The current lineup includes former Amazon Chief Information Officer Richard Dalzell, Plainfield Asset Management partner Karen Dykstra, financial services exec William Hambrecht, Paley Center for Media Director Patricia Mitchell, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell, former CBS Chief Financial Officer Fredric Reynolds, former Procter & Gamble exec James Stengel, and ex-William Morris Agency CEO James Wiatt.

"AOL is very fortunate to have an exceptional group of proven leaders to serve on our board of directors," CEO Tim Armstrong, who took over the reins of the company this spring, said in a release. "AOL is on a mission to help create the future of media and content and the AOL board will play a central part in helping us focus the strategy and also operate the company with the highest ethical standards."

The majority of the board members don't hail from Armstrong's own Silicon Valley turf: the CEO served as Google's director of sales up until his hire at AOL. But most of them are veterans of traditional media, which presumably will give the onetime dial-up king an advantage as it attempts to shape itself into a digital-content power player--at least on the surface.

(Disclosure: One of AOL's new board members has a past affiliation with CBS Corp., which publishes CNET News.)

In a move that comes as little surprise, Apple announced Monday that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is resigning from its board of directors.

"Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in the release. "Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric's effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple's Board."

Schmidt had been on Apple's board for almost exactly three years, since August 2006.

In May, Google confirmed that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was planning to hold discussions concerning potential conflicts of interest related to Schmidt's presence on both companies' boards of directors. Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said at the time that Google did not believe there was a problem with the situation.

Schmidt has said repeatedly that he recused himself from Apple board discussions pertaining to areas in which the companies' interests overlap--the iPhone, for example, given Google's work on the Android operating system for smartphones. But the similarities grew more difficult to reconcile when Google announced the development of its Chrome operating system, which will compete directly with Apple's OS. (The companies already own competing Web browsers, Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome.)

Last month, Schmidt said that he was planning to discuss the future of his role on Apple's board given the advent of Chrome OS.

More recently, potential competitive turf became evident when Google's third-party applications for the iPhone--which comes preinstalled with Google Maps--started to get well-publicized scrutiny from Apple. Google's location-aware service Latitude, for example, has been restricted to a Web-based app rather than an installable one, and a Google Voice telephony app was outright rejected by Apple.

Last week, a report surfaced that the Federal Communications Commission had sent letters of inquiry to Apple, Google, and iPhone carrier AT&T concerning the blocked app.

The Federal Trade Commission, meanwhile, is also looking into the relationship between Apple and Google. On Monday, the FTC said it would continue that inquiry even with Schmidt's departure from Apple's board.

"We have been investigating the Google/Apple interlocking directorates issue for some time and commend them for recognizing that sharing directors raises competitive issues, as Google and Apple increasingly compete with each other," Richard Feinstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. "We will continue to investigate remaining interlocking directorates between the companies."

Last updated Tuesday at 4:38 a.m. PDT with FTC statement.

AOL has promoted Stephane Panier to the role of president at social network Bebo, which it acquired last year for $850 million.

Panier, who joined AOL in January after six years at Google, had previously been serving as chief operating officer of Bebo.

Joanna Shields, who was CEO of Bebo when it was acquired, left AOL in May. Before she left, Shields was head of "People Networks," a new AOL division devoted to social networks. Last week, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced that People Networks would be nixed in a restructuring.

Bebo has been placed in a new division called AOL Ventures, and Panier will report to Jon Brod, executive vice president of AOL Ventures.

The $850 million Bebo buy did not turn out to be AOL's greatest success story, to say the least. Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes admitted that the company "may have overpaid," and much of Bebo's senior management soon began departing.

This week there is just no shortage of dudes named Armstrong in the press. There's the one who rides bikes and likes to tweet about it, the one who walked on the moon 40 years ago, and then there's Tim Armstrong, who has officially been CEO of AOL for 100 days as of Monday.

So he celebrated with press coverage! Armstrong interviews were published Monday on by the Associated Press, AllThingsD, AdWeek, and Advertising Age, and AOL advertising chief Jeff Levick talked to PaidContent. We hope Armstrong also commemorated the 100-day mark with some cupcakes, because while press coverage about ambitious future plans is generally a good thing for a new and already scrutinized executive, it doesn't taste good with buttercream frosting.

So what did Armstrong say? Basically, a whole lot about reinvention. AOL is slated to be spun off from parent company Time Warner in November, and will "be focused on scaling content, advertising, e-mail, messaging and local, but making it easier and less complicated," according to AllThingsD.

That may mean ditching some products--there are over 100 advertising products in AOL's portfolio, for example. And AOL has removed some of the ads from its own sites, making them appear less cluttered (like MapQuest, which had its 17 ads narrowed down to seven, per AdAge). But according to PaidContent, AOL will be ramping up its display advertising business, attempting to take hold of a niche in the market that has been in decline as search ads rose to prominence.

AOL, meanwhile, is "happy" with its search deal with Google, which is set to expire next year, but Armstrong, who headed up sales at Google before his hire at AOL, didn't tell any of the various reporters who pestered him whether they'd renew it. But he did hint that Bebo, the $850 million social-networking buy that AOL made last year, is basically getting shelved.

"Bebo has an opportunity to prove its products and services," Armstrong said to AdAge. "I would argue that the integration of Bebo (with AOL) is less important than having Bebo focus on its core product and service and really try to improve in the social-networking space." The social network has been grouped into AOL Ventures, a side arm of the company for acquisitions and investments outside of AOL's main content and advertising businesses.

Two new members have been added to the fresh lineup of MySpace's executive ranks, following the appointment of CEO Owen Van Natta last week.

Jason Hirschhorn, most recently president of Sling Media Entertainment and before that MTV Networks' chief digital officer, joins MySpace as its chief product officer. He's the second prominent MTV veteran to take on a role at the News Corp.-owned MySpace in the past year, following MySpace Music president Courtney Holt.

Hirschhorn is firmly on the digital-media and entertainment side of things, something that will invariably come into play as MySpace (ideally) restructures itself as an entertainment destination rather than a networking tool. At Sling, he was charged with the development of the SlingPlayer online video aggregator.

The other new MySpace hire comes from a more traditional Silicon Valley background: Michael Jones, who sold his start-up Userplane to AOL in 2006, joins the company as chief operating officer. MySpace is already familiar with Jones' work: it uses Userplane's chat technology for its Web-based chat client, MySpaceIM.

Both will be based in Los Angeles and report directly to Van Natta.

It's official: News Corp. has named former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta as MySpace's CEO, following reports on Thursday that an announcement was imminent. Van Natta's appointment is "effective immediately," a release from MySpace said.

Van Natta succeeds Chris DeWolfe, who stepped down from the post earlier this week, reportedly at the request of newly appointed News Corp. digital czar Jonathan Miller. DeWolfe will remain on the company's board.

"I'm thrilled to have the privilege to pilot MySpace in what is sure to be an incredibly exciting and rewarding next chapter for the business," Van Natta said in a statement. "I feel honored to build upon the immeasurable achievements of the MySpace founders and look forward to working with Jon and the MySpace team to meet the challenges and make the most of the opportunities before us."

Van Natta served as chief operating officer of Facebook before he was shifted--some would say demoted--to the position of chief revenue officer and vice president of operations. He left in February 2008 and later took the CEO position at social music start-up Playlist.

John Sykes, a Playlist board member and one of the original MTV co-founders, will take over Van Natta's CEO role there. Van Natta will continue to be an adviser to the start-up--which is interesting, since it technically competes with the MySpace Music service.

"Owen combines a deep understanding of social networking, a keen business sense, and the operational experience to guide MySpace through its next phase of growth. I'm confident his leadership will be an invaluable asset," Miller said in a statement. "I plan to work closely with Owen to shape our long-term vision around this vibrant community that already attracts more than 130 million users worldwide."

Facebook, Van Natta's old employer, has eclipsed MySpace in worldwide traffic with now more than 200 million active users.

Van Natta's a proven dealmaker. During his tenure as chief revenue officer, Facebook chalked up that whopping $240 million investment from Microsoft. But here's where he might be lacking: entertainment industry cred. With a background at Amazon, Facebook, and several tech start-ups, Van Natta--who will be based in Los Angeles at MySpace's headquarters--probably isn't on the Hollywood circuit. MySpace needs those entertainment connections, some of which come naturally with its News Corp. ownership, because it has a much sunnier future as a pop-culture hub than a social-networking tool.

That said, it's a good first sign that under Van Natta's watch, Playlist started inking deals with major record labels in order to stave off its legal troubles.

This post was expanded at 10:35 a.m. PT.

We can expect an announcement very soon that Owen Van Natta will be replacing Chris DeWolfe as CEO of MySpace, All Things Digital reported on Thursday afternoon.

Considering that AllThingsD's Kara Swisher has a very good track record of knowing Van Natta's whereabouts, we're going to take this one as solid. The announcement could come as early as Friday, Swisher wrote, and though there's no word on timing, we're guessing that it'll either be after the market closes or possibly held off until Monday.

Van Natta rose to the tech world's upper ranks as chief operating officer of Facebook, a position he took after a stint at Amazon.com. He left just more than a year ago, either because of internal disputes with CEO Mark Zuckerberg or because he saw no chance that he'd earn the top spot himself anytime soon (or both). He was then reportedly in the running for the head job at MySpace's new music service and apparently withdrew his candidacy.

Right now, he's the CEO of Project Playlist, one of the many "social music" start-ups that is technically a competitor to MySpace Music, and he has been inking deals with record labels to keep away its persistent legal problems.

DeWolfe's departure from MySpace was announced earlier this week as part of a management shake-up that was likely initiated by Jonathan Miller, the new digital boss at MySpace parent company News Corp. There will likely be other departures and new executives, but AllThingsD said they won't be announced quite yet.

Van Natta probably wasn't the only candidate under consideration: there were hints that News Corp. was also looking internally, possibly at sales and marketing executive Jeff Berman.

Either way, MySpace is in need of some fresh ideas, as it continues to slide into second place behind Facebook.

For Google's executive management team, the $6.3 million in bonuses they received for last year's performance can buy a lot of Android phones.

Google, in a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, noted its new chief financial officer, Patrick Pichette, received a $1.24 million bonus for his five months of work on the new job. For Pichette, he did not have to wait a full 12 months to become a Google millionaire.

Outgoing CFO George Reyes, meanwhile, received a bonus of $675,000. Over the past year, Google's stock has outperformed the Nasdaq.

Google's Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management, received the largest bonus, with $1.64 million coming his way.

Rosenberg was one Google executive who was active on its fourth-quarter earnings call, in which the company exceeded Wall Street's estimates despite facing the headwinds of a dire economy.

Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research and development, and Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development, meanwhile, each received a $1.38 million bonus.

As with , Google's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as its CEO Eric Schmidt, did not collect a bonus.

Greg Coleman, a longtime Yahoo executive, has been named the new president of AOL's advertising division, Platform-A.

"Greg Coleman is the perfect person to build on the foundation we created at Platform-A and drive branded display sales across our fast-growing MediaGlow programming network," AOL chairman and CEO Randy Falco said in a release, referring to the network of blogs and media properties that the online conglomerate formally packaged and announced last month. "Greg's a seasoned sales pro who understands that online brand building is the next frontier in digital advertising, and that whoever can deliver marketers measurably improved branding online will be positioned for long-term success."

Coleman, who will report to AOL chief operating officer Ron Grant, left Yahoo early last year amid a management shuffle and became president and CEO of ad targeting start-up NetSeer. Around the time of his departure, AOL itself went through a shakeup in which Platform-A president Curt Viebranz left the company. Viebranz was replaced by Lynda Clazirio, who was president of AOL acquisition Advertising.com.

CNET News asked a representative from AOL, which relocated its corporate headquarters from Dulles, Va., to New York in 2007 to position itself close to the advertising and media industries, whether Clazirio would remain at the company. The e-mailed response was, "Lynda hasn't yet announced what she's planning to do next."