AOL and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington have officially parted ways, at least on an employer/employee basis, though the company will continue in its investment in Arrington’s “CrunchFund” . The official statement from AOL as posted on TechCrunch:

“The TechCrunch acquisition has been a success for AOL and for our shareholders, and we are very excited about its future. Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch has decided to move on from TechCrunch and AOL to his newly formed venture fund. Michael is a world-class entrepreneur and we look forward to supporting his new endeavor through our investment in his venture fund. Erick Schonfeld has been named the editor of TechCrunch. TechCrunch will be expanding its editorial leadership in the coming months.”

It’s worth noting that the TechCrunch post which shares this statement uses quotations aren’t “Deciding” in the title “‘Deciding’ to Move On”.

Some other TechCrunch writer responses:

Kara Swisher has posted yet another leaked internal company memo, this from AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. The part about TechCrunch reads:

“Finally, I’d like to announce that Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch, has decided to move on from TechCrunch and AOL to his newly formed venture fund. TechCrunch continues to be a part of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group. AOL will maintain its initial investment in Michael Arrington’s fund and AOL Ventures will oversee our investment in the fund.”

For more background on the events that led up to this, view past coverage here.

And as a bonus, let’s review that Next Media Animation video one more time:

Schonfeld was already co-editor of TechCrunch, so it stands to reason that the site will remain relatively similar to how it’s always been, though that part about expanding editorial leadership in the coming months might have more bearing on that, depending on just what is in store.