Executive From Google to Replace Two at AOL

By SAUL HANSELL
Published: March 12, 2009
Time Warner abruptly fired the two top leaders of its struggling AOL unit Wednesday and replaced them with one of the top executives from Google.

AOL’s new chairman and chief executive will be Tim Armstrong, who joined Google in 2000 to start a sales operation for the then-tiny search engine. Since then, Google has grown to sell more advertising than any newspaper, magazine or television network. Mr. Armstrong, who was the president of American operations, looked after both advertising sales and relationships with publishers.

He replaces Randy Falco, a former top executive of NBC, who was brought in to run AOL in November 2006 by Jeffrey L. Bewkes, Time Warner’s chief executive.

Ron Grant, a former aide to Mr. Bewkes who was the No. 2 executive at AOL under Mr. Falco, was also fired Wednesday.

Mr. Falco’s reign has been marked by turmoil in AOL’s ranks, with many top executives leaving of their own accord and others fired by Mr. Falco. He also oversaw the elimination of thousands of jobs, as the company’s revenue from its original subscription business dwindled.

AOL today is a different company than when it was the country’s leading Internet access provider, helping a generation learn how to send e-mail and instant messages and use the Web.

It still has a large number of users of its e-mail service and portal and has developed specialized Web sites, like Engadget for technology news and TMZ for celebrity gossip. AOL has also bought a series of companies that sell advertising on other Web sites.

Mr. Falco’s biggest move was to buy Bebo, a social network popular in Britain, for $850 million last spring, just a bit before the stock market began its free fall. Many in the Internet industry say that Mr. Falco paid far more for Bebo than it was worth, especially given Facebook’s continued rise in social networking.

In a short interview, Mr. Armstrong declined to say much about his plans but said that the company, despite its troubles, has potential.

“You can argue about its reputation, but everybody in the world knows AOL,” he said.

On a personal level, he said that he had left Google in order to take advantage of a better opportunity.

“I’m 38 years old, and this gives me the opportunity to move on my own and lead a company forward,” he said.