More Tim Armstrong Fallout: Departures at Google, AOL
by Peter Kafka
Posted on May 14, 2009 at 1:30 PM PT
More ripple effects from Tim Armstrong’s departure from Google to run AOL for Time Warner (TWX): Tom Phillips, Google’s director of search and analytics, is out.
No word on whether he has a new job lined up, but it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see him land at AOL. Armstrong has already brought over former Googler Jeff Levick to replace Greg Coleman as head of ad sales, and the chatter is that he’ll bring over more Google (GOOG) vets before he’s done making over his team. And Phillips, I’m told by multiple sources, “was a Tim guy.”
UPDATE: AOL officials say there are no plans to bring Phillips on board.
Meanwhile, Armstrong/Levick have been overhauling their new sales team. Earlier this week they let go of 17 people, primarily in sales support. But those cuts had actually been planned by Coleman, who wanted to reallocate resources away from sales support and expand his sales team.
Phillips’s departure comes after multiple high-level executives have left Google’s sales team, which is now overseen by Nikesh Arora and run day-to-day by Dennis Woodside. No comment from the Google PR team.
His resume is a bit different from your typical Googler’s: For one thing, he graduated from Harvard in the 1970s. He put in time at Spy magazine and Disney’s (DIS) Web 1.0 team and then ran Dejanews.com, selling what was left of that company to Google after the first bubble popped. At Google, Phillips ran the company’s now-shuttered print advertising program and helped oversee integration of Doubleclick.
[Image credit: Hitchster]
