Tim Armstrong, CEO of Verizon media subsidiary Oath (pictured), could leave the company as soon as next month, apparently due to struggles relating to the operator’s digital advertising offer, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
Though discussions about Armstrong’s future are ongoing, sources told WSJ many of his day-to-day responsibilities were recently passed to Oath COO Guru Gowrappan.
Verizon originally envisioned Oath as an in-house play to challenge the dominant advertising businesses of Google and Facebook, aiming to generate between $10 billion and $20 billion in annual revenue by 2020.
But Oath’s advertising business failed to achieve significant growth since its launch in June 2017. In Q2 2018, Oath revenue was $1.9 billion, a figure which was flat on a sequential basis and down slightly from $2 billion in its first full quarter in Q3 2017.
Barriers to success
WSJ sources said part of the problem is a disagreement between Verizon and Oath executives over how much wireless subscriber information should be used for the advertising platform. Verizon shared anonymous data about users’ gender, age, phone and tariff, but declined to provide Oath with information about what apps customers use unless they explicitly opted-in to allow the operator to use the information.
Oath also struggled to boost adoption of its content offerings and Verizon recorded charges of nearly $1 billion related to its media business in Q2.
In recent months, the operator pivoted away from its content efforts, shuttering its go90 video service and selling off its stake in AwesomenessTV. Verizon said it will instead focus on building out 5G as a platform to distribute outside content.
Comments