Categories: OLD Media Moves

AOL declines sale of TechCrunch back to Arrington

Kara Swisher of All Things D reports that AOL has decided against selling tech news site TechCrunch back to founder Michael Arrington and is now working on a negotiating a severance package with him.

Swisher writes, “Source said the sides are still caught on the terms of the parting, including whether Arrington and other TechCrunch staffers will get the big-money earn-outs based on their staying at AOL, as well what would happen if Arrington were to start a competing blog site and siphon away editorial staffers from TechCrunch.

“Hanging over the proceedings: Next week’s lucrative TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, where Arrington and other TechCrunch staffers interview tech luminaries and show off new start-ups.

“Also in play is the status of the site’s writers. At least one — the windswept Paul Carr — has written on TechCrunch that he will resign if Arrington is not allowed to handpick his successor.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.