Tim Armstrong (executive)

Timothy M. Armstrong
Born	(1970-12-21) December 21, 1970 United States
Occupation	Business executive
Years active	1990s–present
Known for	CEO of Flowcode, former CEO of Oath Inc. and AOL Inc.

Timothy M. Armstrong (born December 21, 1970) is an American business executive who founded and currently leads Flowcode as its CEO. He previously held the position of CEO at Oath Inc., a subsidiary of Verizon Communications responsible for managing digital content brands such as AOL and Yahoo!. Before that role, Armstrong was the head of AOL Inc. from 2009 until Verizon's acquisition of the company in 2015.

Armstrong’s professional journey began in journalism, where he gained prominence through his work in online advertising sales during the 1990s. He was the marketing director at Seattle-based online portal Starwave, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1998. By 2000, he had taken on the role of vice president of sales at Snowball, a New York-based company focused on news and gaming. Subsequently, Armstrong joined Google as Vice President for Advertising Sales and later advanced to become President of Google’s Americas division before taking over as CEO of AOL in 2009, succeeding Randy Falco.

Education and early life

Armstrong completed a dual major in Economics and Sociology at Connecticut College between 1989 and 1993. During his time there, he actively participated in lacrosse and rowing, while also coaching the women's ice hockey team for four years. He is an alumnus of Lawrence Academy (Groton, Massachusetts) and serves as a trustee for both Lawrence Academy and Connecticut College.

Early career

Following his graduation in 1993, Armstrong taught summer courses at Wellesley College as part of a program called Exploration. Encouraged by a colleague to explore opportunities in media, he launched a financial newspaper aimed at young adults in Boston. Named Beginnings in Boston (BIB), the publication offered guidance to recent graduates entering the job market. To finance this venture, Armstrong and Michael Dressler sold their mountain bikes and accumulated approximately $100,000 in debt. In the autumn of 1994, they discontinued BIB to take over operations of Square Deal, a larger competitor based in Harvard Square, following the passing of its chief editor.

Armstrong later sold Square Deal and assumed the role of advertising sales director at I-Way, operated by Boston-based International Data Group. In 1995, he joined Starwave, an online entertainment and news portal headquartered in Seattle that was acquired by Disney in 1998. There, he was Director of Integrated Sales and Marketing for Starwave’s and Disney’s Internet ventures with ABC and ESPN. At Starwave, Armstrong secured his first $1 million online advertising contract with Columbia/HCA.

Google

In 2000, Armstrong became Vice President of Strategic Partners at Snowball, a New York company specializing in news and gaming. During this period, he developed an interest in Google Ads and connected with Omid Kordestani, Google’s Chief of Sales and Operations, who introduced him to founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Subsequently, Armstrong was appointed Vice President for Advertising Sales at Google. He advanced to become President of Google’s Americas Operations and served as Senior Vice President of Google Inc. Armstrong played a key role in launching Google AdSense in 2005 and spearheaded Google's expansion into display advertising, culminating in the $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick in 2007. Utilizing some of his earnings from Google, he founded the New Jersey news platform Patch Media, which was later acquired by AOL upon Armstrong’s arrival there.

AOL

At the beginning of 2009, Jeff Bewkes, then chairman of Time Warner, sought to transform AOL into a standalone entity following a nearly 22% decline in revenue, dropping below $3.3 billion from 2008 to 2009. To regain trust from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and advertisers, Bewkes appointed Tim Armstrong as CEO on March 12, 2009.

Armstrong steered AOL toward a focus on advertising and proprietary content, deliberately lowering the volume of advertisements to create a more exclusive environment for premium advertisers. In 2010, Time Warner approved the public spin-off of AOL on the New York Stock Exchange, which involved reducing the workforce by one-third and cutting daily ads from 15 to typically just one. That same year, Armstrong divested AOL’s social networking platform Bebo for approximately $10 million. Additional staff reductions took place in March 2011.

Armstrong prioritized digital journalism targeted at local communities with limited newspaper access, culminating in the June 2011 acquisition of The Huffington Post, appointing co-founder Arianna Huffington as president. He also introduced women-centric platforms such as StyleList.com, AOL Shopping, and KitchenDaily.com; notably, Patch Media’s audience was comprised of 60% women.

During the early 2010s, Armstrong expanded AOL’s portfolio through acquisitions including the technology news site TechCrunch (2010), the programmatic video platform Adap.tv for $405 million (2013), and personalization firm Gravity (2014). He launched Seed, an initiative combining editorial judgment with data-driven algorithms to innovate journalism and engineering. By January 2011, Seed employed 25 staff members producing news stories and videos. Despite its quarterly cost of about $30 million, Patch remained a vital news outlet.

In 2010, Armstrong introduced AOL’s "Monster Help Day," mobilizing employees worldwide for pro bono community work; by its sixth iteration in 2015, it had contributed over 50,000 volunteer hours across 85 projects.

Verizon Communications acquired AOL in May 2015 for $4.4 billion, causing AOL’s stock price to surge by more than 17%. Armstrong continued as CEO; Fortune estimated his stock option gains from the deal at roughly $59 million. With video content emerging as a central focus during what CNBC described as a "content golden age," AOL entered a decade-long advertising sales partnership with Microsoft in June 2015. This agreement involved integrating Bing search in exchange for managing ad sales across Microsoft’s platforms.

In September 2015, under Armstrong’s leadership, AOL purchased mobile advertising technology company Millennial Media for about $238 million to strengthen app monetization capabilities.

In January 2016, AOL acquired AlephD, a French programmatic advertising platform that complemented its existing ONE programmatic platform launched in 2014.

Other work

Armstrong has served as an angel investor in multiple ventures including New York-based Tequila Avion and Betaworks in partnership with AOL. His board memberships include The Priceline Group, Inc. (director since 2013), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Advertising Research Foundation, the Paley Center for Media, and Teach for America’s New York regional board. He holds the title of Chairman Emeritus at the Advertising Council and leads the IAB Education Foundation. Additionally, Armstrong advises McChrystal Group consulting firm. Acting on behalf of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he chaired Media.NYC.2020—a strategic analysis examining the future of the global media sector and its implications for New York City.

A passionate sports supporter, Armstrong is a trustee of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Foundation and owns the Boston Blazers lacrosse team competing in the National Lacrosse League. He also co-founded the United Football League alongside Bill Hambrecht.

Controversies

In August 2013, an audio recording surfaced capturing Armstrong terminating a Patch staff member during a conference call attended by more than 1,000 participants. The dismissal occurred after the employee took a photograph of the meeting. Although Armstrong issued a public apology afterward, he neither reinstated the employee nor provided any form of compensation.

In February 2014, Armstrong linked a $7.1 million yearly rise in AOL's healthcare expenses to the implementation of ObamaCare and the medical care of two critically ill infants. This explanation accompanied adjustments to the company's 401(k) contribution policy, which stipulated that employees departing before the end of the year would forfeit any employer contributions.

External links

• Profile at AOL