Verizon Will Pay $4 Billion For AOL, But The Management Stylings Of Tim Armstrong Are Free
BySelling your media company for $4.4 billion makes for a nice Tuesday, but AOL CEO Tim Armstrong should be extra excited today because Tim Armstrong still gets to do something that he is sublimely terrifying at: being the boss of people.
Armstrong has been AOL’s CEO since 2009, and his more than half-a-decade in charge has been full of fun little moments that would make any management professor cringe and clench in horror.
For instance, months after taking the reins at AOL, Armstrong paid $7 million in cash for a hyperlocal news startup called Patch. That deal would not have been of any major interest had Patch not been founded by Armstrong and gone on to become a money-leeching parasite to the host body of AOL…
Verizon Will Pay $4 Billion For AOL, But The Management Stylings Of Tim Armstrong Are Free