Looks like Mark Andreesen will have more time to "help chart AOL's investments in emerging Internet companies..."
AOL Hires Key Sun Exec, Easing Out Andreessen
By Eric Auchard
NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) Friday said Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen's short-lived stint as chief technology officer is over, and that the chief strategist of AOL ally Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW - news) had agreed to take the role.
The Dulles, Va.-based company said Andreessen -- poster boy for the young nerd turned sudden Internet millionaire phenomenon -- will shift to become a part-time strategic adviser helping chart AOL's investments in emerging Internet companies.
In Andreessen's place, AOL said it named William Raduchel, Sun's chief strategy officer at Sun and the lead architect from Sun's side of the AOL-Netscape-Sun alliance that was a crucial leg of America Online's acquisition of Netscape in March.
AOL stock closed up 9/16 to 96-1/2 on the New York Stock Exchange, after trading virtually unchanged ahead of the news. Sun rose 1-1/2 at 85-11/16 on the Nasdaq stock market.
AOL's hiring of Raduchel provides further evidence of the growing bonds between the two companies, which are collectively the industry's leading suppliers of Internet services, computer hardware and software. AOL and Sun have worked in close partnership to sell Internet business software since AOL's acquisition of Web pioneer Netscape closed earlier this year.
''We are extremely grateful for the many contributions Bill has made to Sun and to our continued success,'' Sun Chairman and Chief Executive Scott McNealy said in a statement. ''I expect we will continue to see a great deal of Bill in his new capacity at AOL,'' he said.
Many analysts consider the Sun-Netscape alliance, as the partnership is called, to amount to Sun's effective acquisition of the Netscape software technology, leaving AOL with control of Netscape's popular Netcenter Web media site. While affirming their close ties, both companies have denied this.
Raduchel, who joined Sun in 1988, had served as chief information, chief financial officer, and human resources chief, becoming its chief dealmaker in early 1998. He previously worked at Xerox Corp., McGraw-Hill Inc. (NYSE:MHP - news), the Institute of Defense Analyses and Harvard University.
In taking over as AOL's chief technologist, Raduchel will serve as the company's technology strategist, focusing on AOL's network design, technologies and strategic alliances. At Sun he was responsible for corporate planning and long-term strategy.
Andreessen, whose dough-faced popular appeal won him a starring role in a recently televised Miller Lite beer commercial, will advise AOL on emerging technologies and new investments.
He plans to split his time between working with start-ups and with AOL on technology issues and potential investments.
''Some of my time will be purely on behalf of AOL. In other cases it will be a combination,'' Andreessen said in describing his new part-time role in an interview with Reuters. ''The kinds of things that interest me are the things that are becoming possible as the Internet becomes more widespread,'' he said.
During his short tenure as AOL's chief technologist Andreessen had focused on developing America Online's ''AOL Anywhere'' strategy. He also acted as adviser on new product development for the Sun-Netscape alliance.
AOL Anywhere is the company's bid to expand beyond computers, offering AOL's range of Internet services through television, phone or handheld computer. The move would let existing members use AOL in new ways, while also attracting a wider audience who prefer not to use computers.
In a separate phone interview, Raduchel said he too would focus on developing the AOL Anywhere strategy to reach new audiences for the Internet.
Raduchel said he had been an early advocate within Sun of the idea that the future of computing lay in reducing its complexity -- emulating the public telephone network's simplicity of use and its ubiquity.
''Computing is for mavens. It isn't for consumers,'' he said, echoing a view that for years has been the guiding ideal among AOL executives in their relentless drive to build the world's largest mainstream audience of Internet users.
At AOL, Raduchel said he planned to take advantage of Sun's advances in computer hardware and Internet technology over the past decade to build a new generation of Internet services for consumers.
''I spent 11 years building a platform and now I would like to go and use it,'' he told Reuters.
In a separate interview, Andreessen said he had been involved in AOL's $1.5 billion investment in Hughes Electronics Corp., owner of DirecTV, in a deal that gave AOL a means to offer high-speed Internet services via satellite.
He also had helped arrange AOL's acquisition of Spinner Networks, an Internet music broadcaster, and Nullsoft Inc., makers of Web audio broadcast software, earlier this summer.
''What I really discovered was that a lot of my job at AOL was dealing with outside startups,'' Andreessen told Reuters.
These ties remain centered in Silicon Valley, still hub of the world's entrepreneurial fever and the home of Netscape.
Andreessen said he planned to spend more time in Silicon Valley than Northern Virginia. He had been splitting time between both coasts since joining AOL this summer. California's cooler weather, and his dogs were factors, he said.
''I had one of my English bulldogs in Northern Virginia, but it turned out it couldn't go outside'' when the temperature rose about 80 degrees, he said. |
