(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Three senior executives are leaving AOL following a recent shake-up that brought in a veteran NBC executive as the online company's new chief executive, two people familiar with the matter said.
The executives are Joe Redling, who is chairman and CEO of AOL International, Jim Bankoff, executive vice president for consumer and publisher services, and John Buckley, executive vice president for corporate communications.
The company had no official comment. The people who confirmed the changes spoke on condition of anonymity because they involved personnel matters not yet announced.
Over the past two years, the company has been giving away more of its services to drive traffic to its Web sites and boost online advertising dollars.
In August, AOL accelerated the transition by deciding to give away AOL.com email addresses and software once reserved for paying customers.
In a September reorganization, then-CEO Jonathan Miller named Redling to oversee AOL's international presence, its mobile services and its relationship with free and paying customers. Redling had headed AOL's Internet access business, a unit abolished as the entire company shifted its focus toward drawing eyeballs to ad-supported Web sites.
But less than two months later, AOL parent Time Warner lured Randy Falco, NBC Universal Television Group's president and chief operating officer, to run AOL, pushing out Miller. Time Warner executives had been supportive of Miller's efforts to set AOL on a new course, but wanted someone with operational experience to execute the plan.
Several AOL executives have contractual clauses allowing them to leave when senior management changes, triggering the departures of Redling, Bankoff and Buckley, according to the people familiar with the decisions.
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