AOL Inc's head of applications and commerce group and Silicon Valley operations is stepping down, Bloomberg said citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Brad Garlinghouse, an executive brought on in 2009, previously worked at Yahoo Inc and Silver Lake Partners, the agency said.

Sarah Lacy, a senior editor at TechCrunch, which was sold to AOL last year, also intends to depart, Bloomberg reported citing another person familiar with the situation. Michael Arrington left the company in September.

The company, which Time Warner spun off after a disastrous decade-long merger, is trying to regain its status as a popular online destination that attracts advertising dollars from the likes of auto companies and consumer packaged-goods makers.

Neither AOL nor TechCrunch were immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Swetha Gopinath in Bangalore; Editing by Carol Bishopric)

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