AOL-Yahoo combo is as big as Netflix and looking to expand

Tim Armstrong unveils Oath

LOS ANGELES, June 19, (RTRS): Tim Armstrong, CEO of Oath — Verizon’s newly merged AOL-Yahoo organization — said the company today is roughly the size of Netflix and is plotting a worldwide expansion to launch more brands in more countries beyond its current portfolio.

The idea behind the Oath name was to convey a long-term commitment to the media business, said Armstrong, speaking at an event Monday at Cannes Lions. Oath comprises more than 50 media and tech brands, and its focus for the future will be on delivering content and ads across mobile platforms.

“From a commitment standpoint, we’ve laid out a road map through 2020 to try to get to 2 billion consumers,” he said, targeting between $10 billion and $20 billion in annual revenue. Currently, the combined AOL and Yahoo properties reach about 1.3 billion users monthly, and serves 1 trillion monthly ad requests.

Verizon last week closed the $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo’s internet businesses — whereupon Armstrong and his team began the process of cutting 15% of the combined AOL-Yahoo workforce. According to company reps, the layoffs have been substantially completed and Oath has about 12,000 employees.

“Our original M&A focus was getting to scale” on media brands and marketing technology, Armstrong said. “If we do M&A in the future, it will be opportunistic,” particularly in geographies outside the US such as China. Armstrong reiterated that Oath doesn’t intend to directly compete with Google and Facebook, even as it eyes bulking up to a global user base of 2 billion in the next three years.

“Our goal is to open up relationships with consumers in a differentiated way,” he said. The positioning to marketers is that Oath’s brands are “trusted places to do marketing,” Armstrong added. “We are probably the single largest, cleanest source of consumer traffic and data.”