The move is not unexpected. It had been predicted he would make his exit following last Wednesday's finalising of the deal.
The acquisition was announced in July after weeks of talks between the two companies. For venture capital firm Cinven, the £1.15bn deal represented a healthy return on the £860m management buyout of IPC from Reed Elsevier it led in January 1998.
Arculus joined from United News & Media where he was chief operating officer. He left United after less than a year in the job. Prior to United, he was group managing director at Emap. He is also part-time chairman of Severn Trent.
The exit of Arculus leaves Sly Bailey, the IPC CEO, running the company. Bailey took over from Mike Matthew in 1999 when he retired.
The exit of Arculus and the acquisition by AOL is likely to see a shake-up at the company.
In August, shortly after the AOL deal, IPC culled its internet division and announced the closure of Beme.com, unmissabletv.com and uploaded.com with the loss of 90 jobs as part of a review of its online operations.
It said it would focus on just six core sites. The sites IPC will focus on are NME.com, countrylife.co.uk, horseandhound.co.uk, decanter. com, web-user.co.uk and the online version of Yachting and Boating World, ybw.com.
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