A top Verizon executive who has struggled in trying to turn the telecom giant into an advertising rival to Google and Facebook is being replaced next month and intends to leave altogether by the end of the year.
Tim Armstrong, who was the chief executive of AOL when Verizon bought his company in 2015, was responsible for leading Oath, the Verizon subsidiary that contains AOL and Yahoo.
Armstrong will be succeeded on Oct. 1 by K. Guru Gowrappan, Oath’s president and chief operating officer, Verizon said in a release Wednesday. Armstrong will take an advisory role at Verizon to guide the leadership transition before ultimately departing by year’s end, the company said.
The announcement comes a year after Verizon completed its acquisition of Yahoo in an attempt to create a digital advertising giant that could take on Silicon Valley. Its aim was to use behavioral data from Internet users to sell highly targeted advertisements, particularly on video.