Top 3 Execs of Time Warner’s Entertaindom.com Resigning

In the first major executive shakeout from the announced merger of America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc., the three top architects of Time Warner’s much-heralded Entertaindom.com Web site are resigning.

Sources say James Moloshok, Entertaindom’s chief executive and president; James Banister, its executive vice president and chief development officer; and Jeff Weiner, its senior vice president and chief operations officer, are all leaving the Burbank-based Web operation.

Their departures, apparently in the wake of the company’s canceled plans to spin off the site as an independent company, suggest that Time Warner’s extensive investments in new media may go by the wayside as it merges operations with its new partner.

None of the executives could be reached for comment Tuesday, and it was unclear whether they have lined up new jobs. An official announcement of their departures has not yet been made. In the heated field of technology and entertainment “convergence,” however, all three are likely to be sought-after executive candidates.

Their departures follow what sources say is a raft of switched signals that have followed the merger announcement in January of Time Warner and America Online.

Entertaindom, which features a combination of original material, cartoons and film clips from the Warner Bros. library, and entertainment information, was launched late last year as one of the most ambitious projects by a traditional media company to create an entertainment-oriented site on the Web.

Most irksome to Entertaindom’s staff of about 175 employees, according to sources, was the abandonment of plans to spin off the site, even though the staff already had been issued stock options representing 20% of the enterprise as of Jan. 1. The options were exercisable next Jan. 1 at a price of $7.55 per share.

Those options are now to be converted into a combination of Time Warner options exercisable over three years and restricted Time Warner stock vesting in five years--a formula that many at the Web site believe undervalues the operation by as much as half.

Several weeks ago, Kevin Tsujihara, a Time Warner senior vice president for strategic planning, was abruptly named head of Time Warner New Media, a position that gave him oversight over Entertaindom.