AOL (NYSE: AOL) spent an astounding $9 billion in the last decade on an M&A strategy that didn’t make much sense, said CEO Tim Armstrong in a conversation with Bloomberg TV anchor Betty Liu at the Paley Center’s International Council conference. Armstrong reiterated a point he’s made a lot lately, mainly that it would continue to make acquisitions, but it has to adhere to a limited strategy that involves building content and advertising scale. In turn, Liu persistently grilled Armstrong about rumors surrounding possible merger talks with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). But the AOL exec wouldn’t budge.
“I’m not going to comment on Yahoo,” Armstrong repeated. He did say, though, that Yahoo is a partner in some areas and that the two companies talk regularly. “If we can find a way to expand the reach of our content and our advertising, we’ll look at it. But the stuff in the press about Yahoo, there is nothing active now.”
Liu: “But were those reports accurate?”
Armstrong, laughing, responded: “It depends what you’re reading.”
Armstrong also provided an update on Patch’s hyperlocal efforts. The company is investing about $30 million in local this year, as it seeks to have 500 Patch-served towns by the end of 2010. Armstrong took aim at the notion that Patch’s journalist’s weren’t profession, saying, “the average Patch reporter has 6- to 8 years experience and the editors have more than 10 years.”
What is the point behind posting people’s tweets of this story? It is basically just a repeat of the headline every time. A couple tweets repeat a fact from the story, but no one actually contributes any additional thought. I just read the story. I don’t need to see the head line. Noise.
Thanks for the feedback, Aaron. When we both tweet and write about
something, the tweets that post to the site usually come before the post is
written and are meant to inform people in the short term. If you’re
referring to tweets about stories in our daily roundup, I agree, we
shouldn’t repeat those.