AOL’s CEO will make millions from the Verizon deal

By Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor
Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor

Benjamin Snyder is Fortune's managing editor, leading operations for the newsroom.

Prior to rejoining Fortune, he was a managing editor at Business Insider and has worked as an editor for Bloomberg, LinkedIn and CNBC, covering leadership stories, sports business, careers and business news. He started his career as a breaking news reporter at Fortune in 2014.

Photograph by Bryan Bedder—Getty Images

AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong reportedly stands to collect $180 million from the company’s acquisition by Verizon (VZ), according to The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper adds he won’t be eligible for a good amount of that money until a year after the deal closes.

The Journal reports that Armstrong has 6.7% ownership of AOL and is the largest individual shareholder. The article continues:

The 1.68 million shares Mr. Armstrong owns have a market value of $84 million. Since he spent $25 million of his own money in the course of building up that stake—he also received stock awards—Mr. Armstrong will net about $59 million from selling his shares.

Armstrong will stay with Verizon, and he has signed a long-term contract, according to the newspaper. He received a “large number” of AOL stock “options with varying exercise prices,” but can’t exercise those options until a year after the deal closes, the paper said.

Exercising the options would yield a profit of about $120 million, the Journal said, and would bring his “total haul from the transaction to $179 million, excluding taxes.”

In 2014, Armstrong’s compensation totaled $6.9 million. Verizon acquired AOL for $4.4 billion on Tuesday.

As Fortune reported, the deal signals Verizon’s foray into the ad-tech business.
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