AOL exec: Miller victim of Time Warner power play

Another AOL insider, even less enthusiastic about ousted CEO Jonathan Miller, says it's Bewkes, one of the leading candidates to succeed Richard Parsons as CEO of Time Warner, who is making a power play at the media conglom. Background and more insider gossip, at http://www.valleywag.com/tech/bitchfest.

I really think that it was all done at the Bewkes level, and came as a surprise to Miller. He just signed a contract extension a few months ago. He was actively communicating that he was re-committed to the company. In my opinion — it happened because he's always done everything at least a year late... he finally has narrowed the strategy and isn't the operational person who is needed to steer the execution (although he's not exactly the steve jobs type inspirational strategy public face either) I think that it's also Bewkes knowing that Time Warner is now his to lose, and his needing not only to ensure good performance from AOL but also finding some way to show that it's more valuable (and time warner's more valuable) with Time Warner owning AOL. The hope is to do an IPO not too far down the road, as Google now owns 5% and TW keeping a controlling interest after the IPO, like they're doing with time warner cable.

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