David Liu, a longtime exec at AOL and vice president in charge of Global Messaging, will make his exit from the company next month, according to an email. His departure comes just one month after the hiring of ex-Yahoo Brad Garlinghouse as president of Internet and Mobile Communications.
Liu, who was in charge of overseeing AOL's AIM, ICQ, and more recent Lifestream social aggregator, said he was leaving to "pursue outside opportunities," but his desire to suddenly look elsewhere was most likely fueled when AOL decided to go in a different direction with Grarlinghouse.
So what's next for Liu? According to TechCrunch, Liu has a few things going on, including becoming an angel investor in startup SimpleGeo, as well as talking to private equity firms about joining as a partner in search of realtime startups. And considering Liu's history (earlier in the decade he launched and grew AOL.com's free portal to 50 million users), he shouldn't have too much trouble setting up meetings with investors.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/paul_lilly
[2] http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/aol-loses-its-chief-lifestreamer-david-liu/
[3] http://paidcontent.org/article/419-david-liu-is-out-as-aols-global-messaging-head/
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/everyone_wants_buy_yahoo_nobody_wants_buy_aol_reports_captain_obvious
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/gmail_grabs_number_three_email_spot_aol
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/time_warner_looking_spin_aol_%E2%80%93_can_it_survive_its_own
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/america_online_0
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/aol
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/business
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/it
[11] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/maximum_it/it_news
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/maximum_it
[13] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/login?&commentfragment=comments_top_anchor
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