Aol ftw?
I’ve been watching AOL closely since Tim Armstrong became the CEO just over a year ago. AOL has been in a bad way for the last few years. The company is reliant on its dial-up modem business which is shrinking between 27-33% every year, the acquisition of Bebo has been universally derided as a waste of money at $850 million and the company has gone through a series of layoffs. However, I think AOL will be a success story within the next 5 years. Why?
Frankly, I like what Tim Armstrong has done at the company for the last year. He has removed the distraction of Bebo by putting the company up for sell (or closing it down), he is open about the company’s problems and is developing a strategy to make AOL the “Conde Nast” of online content. Armstrong is positioning AOL to take advantage of the demise of print media, you can see this with his work on Patch. As people consume more content online AOL hopes to fill that gap, and there is a gap there.
Armstrong has the ideas but can he execute? That remains to be seen but I am bullish on AOL. Q1 2010 financial results were very poor and we are yet to see a financial change in the company’s affairs but if Armstrong can bring together the right team (including crucial engineering talent which we haven’t heard much about), then I feel AOL may resurrect itself. Check out the video below for more on Armstrong’s plans for AOL.
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