Comments on: AOL To Shutter A Slew Of Products, EVP Kevin Conroy’s Future Uncertain

By: AOL axing 700 employees

AOL axing 700 employees — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:03:54 +0000

[...] it is still the centerpiece of its People Networks business. Last July, TechCrunch reported that AOL reorganized its products group, including Xdrive, AOL Pictures, Bluestring and MyMobile, to shift focus and resources on other [...]

By: Product Group ReOrg At AOL: The Memo

Product Group ReOrg At AOL: The Memo — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:24:16 +0000

[...] Some other shuffling is also going on. AOL Video, AOL Radio, Winamp and other properties are now under Bill Wilson’s programming group, and Userplane is now under Joanna Shields’ People Networks unit (Bebo). This reorg was a long time coming. [...]

By: AOL Exec Kevin Conroy Out After Product Empire Dismantled

AOL Exec Kevin Conroy Out After Product Empire Dismantled — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:29:11 +0000

[...] This isn’t much of a surprise – we speculated on his future back in July when he announced (internally) the shuttering of four of his products (Xdrive, AOL Pictures, Bluestring and MyMobile). That still left him with AOL Mail, MYAOL, the AOL client, Userplane and Truveo, among others. But each of those products seemed to be a better fit in a different organization. [...]

By: Aol shuts down Aol pictures, xdrive, and blue string « Invincible Tech

Aol shuts down Aol pictures, xdrive, and blue string « Invincible Tech — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:45:10 +0000

[...] July we wrote about AOL’s plans to shutter a number of services based on an internal email from EVP Products and Marketing Kevin [...]

By: AOL Begins Shutdown Of AOL Pictures, BlueString And Xdrive : VCsAndAngels - Venture Capital / VCs, Angel Investors, Startup News, Etc

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:50:36 +0000

[...] July we wrote about AOL’s plans to shutter a number of services based on an internal email from EVP Products and Marketing Kevin [...]

By: AOL Begins Shutdown Of AOL Pictures, BlueString And Xdrive

AOL Begins Shutdown Of AOL Pictures, BlueString And Xdrive — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:19:17 +0000

[...] July we wrote about AOL’s plans to shutter a number of services based on an internal email from EVP Products and Marketing Kevin [...]

By: AOL Dumps Products and Blogs

AOL Dumps Products and Blogs — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:04:37 +0000

[...] Michael Arrington, “AOL To Shutter A Slew Of Products, EVP Kevin Conroy’s Future Uncertain&#…, Michael Arrington, “AOL Makes Big Budget Cuts Across Blogs (Updated)”, Tech Crunch, [...]

By: David L

David L — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:35:23 +0000

Conroy, Liu, and all these other people who think they know how to build products should be canned. Blatant incompetence goes unaccounted for, but what’s new?

Maybe they should have dropped the vowels from all the product names … brilliant!

By: David H. Deans

David H. Deans — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:59:09 +0000

I think that Ravi is on to something — only why limit the bidding to just a few assets. Time Warner shareholders might benefit if all AOL assets were placed into an auction.

At least that ROI would be somewhat predictable, when compared to the death by a thousand cuts that’s left the company in its current state.

Parsons and Bewkes apparently don’t seem to have any better ideas.

By: XDMOlson

XDMOlson — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:01:13 +0000

It’s true that we’ve been enduring the ups and downs of the Xdrive.com service for a while but we who believe in the product, the features, and the people who built the product and service now and since it’s inception are feeling sad today with the announcement of the ‘Sunsetting’ of the Xdrive.com service. Sorry to see you go old friend and we will miss you.

Maybe we will see AOL look to sell off this portion of their portfolio. Xdrive.com has survived many pit falls in the Online Storage industry however Xdrive.com always rose from the ashes each time too. The Thunderbird of Online Storage Xdrive.com; viva la Xdrive.com. We will see again I’m sure of it and I want to be there.

Via condeous Xdrive.com……

-XDMOlson

By: Xdrive Is for Sale « Evan Brown’s Links of Interest

Xdrive Is for Sale « Evan Brown’s Links of Interest — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:02:37 +0000

[...] having hard times these days, and the company is trying to cut costs anyway it can. In addition to shutting down many of its services like AOL Pictures, MyMobile, and Bluestring, AOL is wanting to sell Xdrive for five million [...]

By: Ravi

Ravi — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:28:06 +0000

Why not invite bids for these products, instead of sun-setting them? I’m sure there are a lot of entriprising guys, and VCs, who would be willing to take the bet and spin them into marketable ideas – launch a global auction.

By: Naveed Anwar

Naveed Anwar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:44:45 +0000

Victor, the AOL Developer Program or AOL Developer Network is not impacted and it is very much alive and available at dev.aol.com

By: Between the Lines mobile edition

Between the Lines mobile edition — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:10:30 +0000

[...] TechCrunch: AOL To Shutter A Slew Of Products, EVP Kevin Conroy’s Future Uncertain [...]

By: AOL blog cuts and more… |

AOL blog cuts and more… | — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:06:35 +0000

[...] more news about the situation by AOL can be found here and here. As told at techcrunch.com there are big changes going on by AOL and some not so good [...]

By: Luther

Luther — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:55:01 +0000

AOL can’t seem to lose the attitude of deciding from the top what they want to do to their users while ignoring what users might be interested in.

By: Tony Conrad

Tony Conrad — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:01:53 +0000

FWIW, Kevin is very well regarded within AOL and also is recognized as the key figure in building AOL’s music footprint which is very strong.

By: aolbernie

aolbernie — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:53:41 +0000

Kevin is doing the right thing by getting out of areas that are not working. This is something Yahoo sorely needs to do. We’re focusing on what works.

By: Full Text Of AOL Email: XDrive, AOL Pictures, MyMobile And Bluestring To Shut Down

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:34:47 +0000

[...] « Previous post [...]

By: BetterThanTC

BetterThanTC — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:33:05 +0000

I have a request to AOL, please Open Source the XDrive Windows client code and also the server side on source forge. That way the FOSS community can build an open competitor to GDrive, .Mac and Windows SkyDrive.

Why not? It’s better than letting the code rot?
Look what happened to Eclipse.

TL – http://www.offu...rThanTechCrunch

By: Victor Caballero

Victor Caballero — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:30:14 +0000

Is the AOL developer program impacted?

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:24:23 +0000

Dan,

Bill Crandall actually heads up AOL Music – he joined the company a few years ago from Rolling Stone to head up Music, which has grown nicely over the years.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:22:22 +0000

I received the email, Kevin is doing the right thing in managing the business. Maybe a year late but still the right thing. I applaud it. As stated he still has a number of high profile properties so I would not take this as a sign of anything more then managing the business.

By: Dan Weir

Dan Weir — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:17:07 +0000

Kevin came from BMG (the record label) and headed up AOL Music originally. Does he still have responsibility for music (whatever it is AOL has these days)? Seems like that might belong with Bebo as well.

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:09:48 +0000

Wow… a ton of qualified execs hitting the open market, especially considering yahoo’s situation. What a great opportunity for startups to take advantage of the situation….. http://www.goth...te.blogspot.com