Full Text Of AOL Email: XDrive, AOL Pictures, MyMobile And Bluestring To Shut Down
Below is the full text of the email AOL EVP Kevin Conroy sent out to staff on July 14, outlining the reorganization of his product groups and announcing the “sunsetting” of XDrive, AOL Pictures, MyMobile and Bluestring.
Context & Ripple Effects
AOL had already been through a senior leadership reshuffle in 2006. In 2008, it grouped Bebo, AIM and ICQ in a People Networks unit under Joanna Shields, while completing the $850 million Bebo acquisition.
Kevin Conroy's product-group reorganization removes four standalone services from AOL's lineup, narrowing the set of products managed alongside its social and messaging properties.
First-order effects
- Users of XDrive, AOL Pictures, MyMobile and Bluestring lose access to AOL-operated services as the products are sunset.
- Conroy's reorganized product groups shed responsibility for the four closing services, directing management attention toward the products AOL retains.
Second-order effects
- AOL's People Networks unit becomes relatively more central to its consumer portfolio after the company combined Bebo, AIM and ICQ under that group.
- The shutdowns reduce the number of distinct AOL destinations competing internally for product, operational and marketing resources.
Third-order effects
- If AOL continues pairing reorganizations with service closures, its consumer strategy shifts from maintaining a broad collection of standalone utilities toward concentrating on a smaller number of network-based properties.
The trend: AOL is consolidating its consumer portfolio around selected social and messaging assets rather than sustaining every legacy standalone service.