When AOL's new chief executive Tim Armstrong recruited former colleagues from Google - Jeff Levick and Kate Burns - to top jobs at AOL in May and July respectively, eyebrows were raised about his motives for the internet giant.
Four months on, it has become clear Armstrong's moves were strategic, creating a senior management tier experienced enough to take AOL back to its roots as an online technology and content company after it officially separates from parent Time Warner.
When the merger deal was struck in 2000, it was the biggest media deal in history, creating a combined company worth $350bn. But the split could leave AOL with about $1bn of debt and a market capitalisation of about $4bn, according to Citigroup analysts.
Despite being in the middle of the separation, Armstrong has a clear conscience that the decision is the right one. He says: "AOL is in the engineering and internet space - a different focus from Time Warner. It is a clear, natural separation."
Fresh-faced at 38 and upbeat about the industry, having just flown in from digital and media trade show Demex in Germany, Armstrong is bullish about AOL's new five key strategic areas: pushing content, display advertising, local and mapping, communications and ventures.
While the company operates about 100 content properties in the UK, Armstrong aims to double this within 18 months, creating multibrands that will sit under the AOL umbrella. Some might consider this a risky strategy, with many publishers failing to generate significant advertising revenue from content and considering charging for their products.
Yet Armstrong is confident that, while the strategy is bold and unique - particularly since competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft are moving in the opposite direction - it will set the company apart.
Armstrong also believes the internet is about to reach its third stage of evolution. "The first decade was about access; the current decade is about platforms," he explains. "Investment in ad systems and platforms over the past 10 years has been tremendous. We're betting on the fact that the content that flows through the platform is really important."
And content is the third stage he wants to tap into.
Exceptional value
Exploring the paid-for model alongside free content is also something Armstrong is ready to embark upon. He says: "Content will have to be good enough to charge for and it must deliver exceptional value. We will potentially have content on certain areas of the internet or on paid-for devices."
Having just completed the rebrand of AOL's advertising business, Platform-A, back to AOL Advertising, Armstrong is optimistic about the future. But he also recognises past mistakes.
He says: "When I arrived at AOL, it was clear it had acquired a lot of companies but hadn't integrated anything, so it wasn't really a platform. We have decided to integrate our products and our services."
Part of the aim of the rebrand was to simplify the advertising business, resulting in some brand names acquired by AOL, such as Tacoda, being abandoned. However, AOL will continue to use Tacoda's technology and behavioural targeting, which Armstrong describes as "an important segment of the ad space".
Under Armstrong's new five-tiered strategy, social networking site Bebo, which AOL acquired in 2008 for $850m, will sit under the ventures division. Armstrong concedes the brand hasn't been highly successful under AOL, but quashes rumours the site is up for sale.
He says: "Bebo wasn't a super success being integrated into the company and AOL has to decide whether we can be successful with it. Bebo has a clear space in the social networking category, but the sector is competitive with the likes of Facebook, so we are extracting Bebo back out."
Bebo is going back to basics and will be built around media and engagement. Armstrong says: "We have stopped our work to integrate Bebo with AOL. This is not because Bebo is up for sale, but it is a competitive environment, so our engineers are focusing on what Bebo's DNA is relative to AOL's larger DNA."
Bebo revamp
Armstrong has set a timeframe of six to 12 months to ramp up Bebo and see how the business fares. He says: "Our main goal is to improve the product and try to make it as successful as possible. Too much time was spent integrating Bebo with AIM, but that was never going to be a game-changer for Bebo."
Following Burns' move from Bebo managing director for Europe to head of advertising for Europe at AOL - a result of Armstrong's decision to create a European management team at AOL - the social network has no UK head.
In July, Bebo appointed another former Googler, Stephane Panier, as head of global operations. But with Panier based in San Francisco, Armstrong is currently in discussions about how to handle Bebo's UK operation. He says: "Bebo's programme and ad sales team will have a tighter integration in the UK."
While AOL searches to find Bebo's DNA, it is clear that technology, advertising and success forms a big part of Armstrong's DNA. He will need all of that to get the AOL train back on track.
CV
2009
Chairman and chief executive, AOL
2007
Co-founded Patch (still worked at Google)
2000
President of the Americas operations, Google
1998
Vice-president of sales and strategic partnerships, Snowball.com
1997
Vice-president of sales and strategic partnerships, ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures
1995
Director of advertising, Starwave Corporation
1994
IDG, launched its first consumer internet magazine, I-Way
Lives
Connecticut
Family
Married to Nancy, with three children
Education
Graduated from Connecticut College with degrees in economics and sociology
Armstrong on...
Search: Our search deal with Google runs out in 13 months. Our strategy for next year will come down to our needs, which have changed and augmented. We will talk to all the players in the marketplace, but it will be Google's deal to lose.
Ad exchanges: I'm excited about the new ad exchanges in the market. Our technology AdLean allows AOL to ride on top of all the exchanges. I worked on Google's Ad Exchange before I left, and it is a good use of DoubleClick technology. Google's service will become another strong exchange in the market.
Innovation at AOL: Local presents big opportunities, because it is a poor experience on the internet. We acquired local content providers Patch and Going, and they have been successful. We are also investing in mobile, because content experience isn't great, and focusing more on content management systems, which have also suffered from under-investment. We are strong in yield management for publishers.
AOL vs Google: AOL has a deeper legacy in display advertising than Google and it is going in a very different strategic direction.