It's been about 100 days since Tim Armstrong, the new CEO of AOL LLC, began his review of the soon-to-be independent unit of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), and paidContent.org on Sunday published
a lengthy interview with the exec about what he's learned.
Everyone knows the big AOL story, he said -- the problems with Time Warner's acquisition and the company's subscription model. What needs to be publicized are the good things about AOL, such as its content, ad system and international properties, Armstrong argued. We'll see if he succeeds in getting the word out on this stuff in the next 100 days.
Also of interest was the information he provided about the newly formed AOL Ventures. When we wrote about Time Warner announcing it would split off AOL back in May (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can read more about that
here), the details were scant. The unit will nurture assets, either acquired or developed internally, that haven't gelled with the company's overall strategy.
"We're trying to give them kind of a corral where they can live and grow and really act like a startup without being constrained to the larger strategy the company has," Armstrong said.
AOL Ventures will also do early-stage investing in external companies or university projects "to make sure we have a steady pipeline of potential acquisitions," he added. Bebo, the social network that AOL shelled out $850 million for last year, will become one of the companies to be "corralled" in AOL Ventures. The acquisition has faced "distractions" from integration efforts, Armstrong said.
"We are in the process of letting Bebo focus on what Bebo is really good at," he said.
- Olaf de Senerpont Domis
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