Tim Armstrong Leaves Google to Innovate AOL
Breaking: The portal days are a-changing … again. Tim Armstrong, President of Google Sales, is now Chairman and CEO of AOL, a Time Warner company. With some younger and less traditional (cable) media blood. Borrowing from the Google thinkbank, Jeffrey Bewkes from Time Warner is trying to reconstitute AOL with fresh leadership. Definitely a “New Medici,” Armstrong is supremely ad/sales based, so it will be interesting to watch what level of new product definition comes out of Google – versus reviving its search (currently Googlized). As Google’s former president of the Americas operations and senior vice president, overseeing North and Latin America – and an investor/former chairman of Associated Content, Patch.com and FitPlanet, Armstrong has to redefine what AOL means to a marketplace of users looking for fresh content and ads. Can he reinvent advertising like Google reinvented search?
Per Jeff Bewkes of TW:
Tim is the right executive to move AOL into the next phase of its evolution. At Google, Armstrong helped build one of the most successful media teams in the history of the Internet – helping to make Google the most popular online search advertising platform in the world for direct and brand marketers. He’s an advertising pioneer with a stellar reputation and proven track record. We are privileged to have him preside over AOL as its audience and programming businesses continue to grow and its advertising platform expands globally. He’ll also be helpful in helping Time Warner determine the optimal structure for AOL.
And Armstrong:
I’m very excited about the opportunities presented in leading AOL. AOL has a wide-ranging set of assets and audience. The company is well positioned to enhance those assets into a larger share of the Internet audience and advertiser communities. AOL and Google have been partners for years and I look forward to collaborating with Jeff Bewkes and his team as we explore the right structure and future for AOL.
And, as the WSJ/All Things D mentions below, with Google partnered into AOL’s search, I’m sure the move is reasonably amicable and not completely surprising to the Google senior team, as Tim was mentioned – with former AOL chieftain Jonathan Miller – as a possible Yahoo! head a few months back.
However, the dynamic youth and entrepreneurial reach of an Armstrong, with one hopes strong individual backing from Bewkes is imperative.
There are other ties between the companies as well: Google invested $1 billion in AOL in 2005, in exchange for a 5% stake and the ability to help serve the company’s Internet search advertising in exchange for share in any resulting revenue.
And further:
The move is getting immediate cheers from current and former AOL employees I’ve talked to. The snap consensus is that anyone would have been better than Falco, a longtime NBC executive, and Grant, who was Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes’ chief lieutenant before being elevated to his role as COO of AOL.
Will be interesting to watch AOL rework its advertising image against a recovering Yahoo! and a Google looking to get more embedded in display and mobile advertising. We’re particularly interested in new AOL product flow, and if Armstrong can reinvent ad specs to make them more valuable across CPMs and CPCs.
Finally, Armstrong’s soon-to-be-retired Google bio page:
Tim Armstrong
President, The Americas Operations & Senior Vice President, GoogleTim presides over Google’s North American and Latin American advertising sales and operations teams. His team provides customers with local partnerships as well as centralized sales and services. They work with some of the world’s most widely recognized brands and advertising agencies in addition to some of the fastest growing medium-sized companies.
Tim joined Google from Snowball.com, where he was vice president of sales and strategic partnerships. Prior to his role at Snowball.com, he served as director of integrated sales & marketing at Starwave’s and Disney’s ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures, working across the companies’ Internet, TV, radio, and print properties. He started his career by co-founding and running a newspaper based in Boston, MA, before joining IDG to launch their first consumer Internet magazine, I-Way.
Tim sits on the boards of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Advertising Council, and the Advertising Research Foundation, and is a trustee at Connecticut College and Lawrence Academy. He is a graduate of Connecticut College, with a double major in economics and sociology.
Very informative blog post.Thanks Again.