Aol, Techcrunch | featured news

AOL is considering the sale of TechCrunch, Engadget and other sites in its AOL Tech chanel, according to PandoDaily, which attributes the information to two independent sources. The story, by PandoDaily founder Sarah Lacy, a former writer for TechCrunch, says AOL is seeing $70 million to $100 million for the collection of AOL's tech sites ...

The talent exodus continues at AOL. The latest to give her notice, according to Business Insider, is TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde. Harde, a former News Corp. executive who joined TechCrunch five years ago, had stuck around after the site's founder, Michael Arrington, left in September after being stripped of his editorial duties in a very public confrontation with AOL editor in chief Arianna Huffington.

Michael Arrington is leaving TechCrunch, the technology blog he founded in 2005 and sold to AOL for $30 million, for a recently formed venture fund, amid drama over his position at the company.

It has been a very long week for AOL. And it's about to get even longer. Last Thursday, word leaked that one of its employees, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, was launching a venture capital fund that would include an $8 million commitment from AOL (AOL). Then came a more official version via the NY Times, which included positive quotes from both Arrington and AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong.

What's a blogger to do when his blog is in turmoil? Well, blog about it, of course. Or, in the case of TechCrunch's MG Siegler, maybe "rant" is the more operative verb. On Tuesday morning, the powerful, frothy-mouthed tech blog's No. 2 man went off the digital rails, bemoaning a website that's "on the precipice" and "may be over" as we, the People of the Internet, know it.

Arrington will continue to write for the popular tech blog as he deploys $20 million in start-ups.

AOL has been in talks to acquire technology blog TechCrunch, according to a person familiar with the matter.