AOL boss steps down

NEWS After less than a year at the helm, James de Castro is to step down from his executive position at AOL. de Castro will resign as president of America Online's interactive services division, the company announced yesterday. De Castro, who joined AOL in April, will leave the company at the end of the month to "seek new opportunities," the company said. De Castro's responsibilities, which included running the flagship AOL service, will shift to Ted Leonsis, the veteran AOL executive who serves as the company's vice chairman. A veteran of the radio industry, De Castro was tapped by former AOL Time Warner chief operating officer Bob Pittman to run the AOL service. However, de Castro's future at AOL became questionable after Pittman, who was given the task of turning around the online division, resigned in July, prompting AOL Time Warner to appoint former USA Interactive executive Jonathan Miller as the division's chief executive. De Castro most recently oversaw the October launch of AOL 8.0. But according to his prepared statement, De Castro's ambitions may have been higher than simply running a product. "With the completion of that launch, Jon Miller's arrival and the restructuring of the management team, however, I'm now looking for an opportunity to run a company," he said in a statement. Jim Hu writes for News.com