Shelly Palmer

TW Will Buy Google’s AOL Stake And Spin It – MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer April 30, 2009

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Time Warner noted in it’s quarterly report that it will indeed buy back Google’s 5% share of AOL. Meanwhile, Jeff Bewkes told reporters that TW is “working to determine the right ownership structure for AOL” and would announce future plans in the coming weeks. Time Warner’s revenue dropped 23% this quarter, while AOL reported an operating loss of 37% for the first quarter year-over-year.

Google’s President of global advertising David Rosenblatt recently sent in his resignation. Rosenblatt, former CEO of DoubleClick, became a Google employee after the search-giant purchased DoubleClick in 2008. Rosenblatt is the latest advertising executive to leave Google, following current AOL CEO Tim Armstrong.

IAC has added Urbanspoon to its collection of Internet properties. The company acquired Urbanspoon, a restaurant aggregator with a very popular iPhone application, for an undisclosed sum. Analysts believe IAC may use Urbanspoon to experiment with new mobile advertising solutions.

Intel could be forced to pay the largest fine ever issued by the EU in an anti-trust suit. There is speculation that Intel could be forced to pay as much as a $1.3 billion fine for providing large rebates to computer manufacturer’s in exchange for using their chips. A $1.3 billion fine would be approximately twice the $663 million Microsoft was forced to pay in a recent ruling over a similar matter.

Facebook chief of privacy officer Chris Kelly announced that he will be running for the position of Attorney General of California. While Kelly has long been rumored to be running for office, he has yet to resign from his position at Facebook. The social network recently hired former ACLU lawyer Timothy Sparapani to be its public policy director, leading some to believe he is the logical replace should Kelly run for office.