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Verizon’s announcement on Tuesday that it had agreed to buy AOL for $50 per share in cash is a huge victory for Armstrong, who since taking the CEO position at AOL has created a lot of value for shareholders, most notably himself. Armstrong’s AOL delivered to shareholders a return of 147% since November 2009, when AOL started trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The deal will bolster Armstrong’s reputation as a CEO who produces results. It will also make him richer.
According to the figures provided by the latest proxy AOL filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Armstrong stands to receive about $200 million for his AOL shares under the deal. Armstrong received a big chunk of his AOL shares and options when he left Google to join Time Warner as head of AOL in 2009. To attract him, Time Warner gave stock and options to Armstrong, who had to give up some in-the-money options at Google, says a person familiar with the matter. Those shares and options were later replaced with AOL securities when Time Warner spun the unit off. Armstrong received more AOL options as part of his compensation and retention packages, and owned 3.8 million stock options that at the end of 2014 were exercisable within 60 days. His unexercisable AOL options will vest under the Verizon deal, says a person familiar with the matter. Armstrong owned 1.68 million shares outright as of April 2, according to the SEC filing.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. (Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for AOL)

Armstrong, 43, was already pretty well off financially before he ever started working at AOL. He reportedly ended up with hundreds of millions of dollars of stock from Google, where he was an early employee and president of the Americas operations, overseeing Google’s North American and Latin American advertising sales and marketing groups.

Armstrong took AOL in many different directions as CEO. He had the company buy Patch, the local journalism and business effort he founded, but Patch did not work out for AOL. He had AOL buy the Huffington Post for $315 million in a content play that Verizon does not appear to be interested in keeping. Armstrong also sold AOL’s patents to Microsoft for more than $1 billion. But in the end it was Armstrong’s work in advertising technology and video that made AOL valuable to Verizon.“Verizon is a leader in mobile and OTT connected platforms, and the combination of Verizon and AOL creates a unique and scaled mobile and OTT media platform for creators, consumers and advertisers,” Armstrong, who is slated to continue on as head of AOL, said in a statement announcing the deal. “The visions of Verizon and AOL are shared; the companies have existing successful partnerships, and we are excited to work with the team at Verizon to create the next generation of media through mobile and video.”

forbes.