Dan Primack of Fortune is reporting that AOL has decided to terminate TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, who has started a venture capital fund to invest in tech companies.
Primack writes, “Instead, Fortune has learned that AOL executives have decided to terminate Arrington. It is unclear how this will officially occur. Maybe a pink slip. Maybe Arrington submits a (public?) letter of resignation. Maybe Tim Armstrong simply gives Arrington a phone call, and he quickly dashes off a note to TechCrunch employees on his iPad.
“In other words, the ending has been written but much of the final chapter remains blank. This includes the fate of CrunchFund, which still includes that pesky AOL commitment (which it technically could default on, but that would lead to all sorts of other problems).
“It also is important to note that while I’m led to believe this decision is final, AOL has been so scattershot during this past week that any sort of reversal would not shock me (particularly since Arrington likely will be asking for the world, while Huffington will want to offer him a bowl of dust).
“Earlier today, I wrote that the biggest loser in this affair was Arianna Huffington. But perhaps I judged too early. Huffington clearly erred here in okaying a project without fully understanding its public relations consequences, and then quickly backtracking without admitting to having done so. But, at the same time, Huffington now appears to be more influential at AOL than the company’s CEO (both of them were aware of CrunchFund, but Armstrong was far more involved in its formation). And then there is Arrington, who has lost both his job and (likely) his TechCrunch platform. Oh, and AOL has a mess on its hands deciding if Arrington should or shouldn’t participate in next week’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference (assuming he’s even willing to attend).”
Read more here.
