AOL executive Brad Garlinghouse confirms he’s quitting

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Brad Garlinghouse, a Silicon Valley executive brought in to help turn around AOL in 2009, is leaving the struggling Internet company, he confirmed Wednesday.

‘Hard decision as I’m leaving a bunch of awesome people -- working on some very good stuff -- but decided it was time,’ Garlinghouse said in an email.

Garlinghouse headed AOL’s Silicon Valley operations. He is the latest executive to leave the New York company, which has been fighting to transform itself into a more competitive digital property even as it cedes ground and cachet to Facebook and other newcomers.

Garlinghouse worked at Yahoo and Silver Lake Partners and is well regarded in Silicon Valley. His departure is a blow to the turnaround effort led by AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong. AOL shares have slipped 37% this year.

Garlinghouse became famous at Yahoo for a memo he sent to the company’s management that came to be known as the ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto’ in which he took Yahoo to task for spreading itself too thin across too many businesses.

His departure from AOL was first reported by technology blog GigaOm. An AOL spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

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-- Jessica Guynn