Sphere Leader Has Exited AOL–But Staying on as "Special" Venture Advisor

Tony Conrad, CEO and co-founder of Sphere–the contextually relevant content engine AOL bought in the spring of 2008 for upward of $25 million–left the Time Warner online unit last month, several sources have told BoomTown in recent weeks. But, in an effort by AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong to hold onto entrepreneurial talent, Conrad has agreed to become “Special Advisor” to its AOL Ventures Unit. Apparently, he is also mulling a new start-up and remains a VC too.
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AOL's Big Give and Whirling Dervish Show!

AOL is turning into the Oprah Winfrey of the digital world, it seems, opening up Time Warner’s (TWX) checkbook to as many start-ups as it can. Last month, it was $850 million in cash for social-networking site Bebo. And, today, it’s a much smaller slug for Sphere, which started as a blog search engine and [...]