AOL parachutes former Yahoo! exec into web and mobile unit

AOL has hired ex-Yahooer! Brad Garlinghouse as president of its web and mobile communications division.

Garlinghouse left Yahoo! in August 2008, where he held a very similar role.

More recently he has worked as an advisor at venture capital outfit Silver Lake Partners, which just last week was one of the investors behind the buyout of Skype from online auction powerhouse eBay.

In his new job, Garlinghouse will also run AOL’s Silicon Valley ops from its Mountain View, California site. Additionally, he takes on the West Coast lead for AOL Ventures, which is the company’s venture capital unit.

He will report directly to AOL boss Tim Armstrong, who has been beefing up his management team before parent company Time Warner cuts the firm loose later this year.

Garlinghouse worked at Yahoo! for more than half a decade, and penned the now infamous leaked Peanut Butter Manifesto in 2006. He grumbled at the time that the company was spreading itself too thinly - offering too many services and lacking focus.

Whether we can expect similar comments from Garlinghouse over at AOL, which these days is something of a fading starlet in the shadow of web kingpin Google, remains to be seen.

Time Warner reported less-than-pretty second quarter results in July, when AOL saw revenue once again sharply decline. ®