days events from capitol hill begins at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org or listen to it on the free c-span radio app. verizon completed its acquisition of aol in 2015. at this year's tech crunch disrupt san francisco aol chief tim armstrong sat down with his boss, marni walden, to talk about verizon's current plans to buy yahoo's core internet business. this is about 20 minutes. ♪ >> thank you guys for joining us. so this is going to be sort of like, there is like this trick to this interview, which is that i'm going to pretend as if both of you couldn't fire me if you didn't like the questions, so we're just going to pretend that is not the case. it could get awkward. so there is a bunch of things i want to address, the newest and

biggest one is obviously verizon is acquiring yahoo. we spoke about that when that was announced, tim, and you said it is an auction process and we really haven't figured anything out. it has been a few months since then, so where are you guys at? >> well, first, it is great to be at tech crunch and another soldout show so congratulations to you guys. i would say basically we're just starting the process, so the summer, the auction closed and then a lot of people were away in august. so we're with a team, basically about 20, 21 work streaks we're going through and by the time we get through the early fall, we'll have more of the strategy wired down and then we're going to do the -- over all premise is to do strategy structure and then how do we basically finance the future growth over all. so we're kind of in a strategy phase now. then we'll get to structure, then we get to basically

investment thesis areas over all. so we're still on a time frame of q1 for the close and we're impressed with the yahoo team and spending time there and our teams have been integrated to spend time together. so there is no operating, it is all planning but things are on track and i think there is enthusiasm in terms -- on both sides internally. >> so i think the way people wrote about the deal, the two of you were instrumental in making it happen. who was it initially who said we should acquire yahoo? >> maybe to step back when we did the aol deal, so that began with verizon just looking at a number of assets, some conversations between lull and tim and tim and i, saying if we put these things together we could make it meaningful but at that point we needed to do other things to get more audience, if you will, to the platform. and so we spent a lot of time looking at alternatives, yahoo

was one of those and ultimately i think the teams between tim and teams at verizon came together and said this makes sense for us to go after this asset and put it together with aol. >> so i know tim, you said that it sort of strategy first which is where you are and the details are still going to be figured out down the road. but if i were an employee at yahoo or aol, how worried should i be about any job? >> well, i think if you keep selling out events, it should be okay. but the bottom line is aol has been focused on three main areas which is the media business, building robust data sets, and then platforms over all, yahoo has a similar type focus, there are differences there, so as we go through that, figuring out where we're going to end up as a business together is important. and i think that the most important thing we can do is with a scale size company that we have, combined, it would be

ideal if at some point in the near future we are profitable and growing, and investing in robust technology and things around content. so i think from a jobs standpoint, that is where we started, with strategy, because i think getting right into structure, i don't think verizon would have done the deal if this was a cost structure only deal. and i think there are synergies and there are different synergies and there are job deals and it is how to take a bold strategy and aggressively focus on it and move as fast as we possibly can to get to the outcome that will benefit everybody from growth. >> so i do want to get in a second to talk about the verizon broader strategy here. but one more question on yahoo is that one of the things that i think you alluded to and that tim mentioned as well is sort of what yahoo brings to the table is reaching all of the different consumers. i think that sometimes there is a sense that maybe yahoo doesn't

have -- isn't growing its reach and reaching the right consumers. is that a concern? >> look, i think we needed to get into the billions. we talk about that in terms of eyeballs and yahoo certainly does that for us, but just like with any of our businesses, we need to continue to go after audiences, whether those are millennials, global is a big position for verizon and yahoo does that and aol does that but we need to continue to look for ways to grow those. verizon has made a couple of investments that both tim and i work closely with in terms of complex media and awesomeness tv. we're doing some of our own content and channels and so those will all be ways that we try and go after multiple audiences, so that we've got a reach across all of the growing businesses. >> so i mean, i think the way that people talk about the idea of verizon acquiring aol, acquiring yahoo, doing a lot of this sort of video, advertise, is that idea that as a carrier, you don't want to be a dumb

pipe -- >> we do not want to be a dumb pipeline. >> how much of that is essentially what the strategy is? >> well, so maybe to step back a bit. a little over two years ago, i was asked to take on this new assignment, the role didn't really exist but it was to look at driving revenue for the future of verizon. and so we took a look at all of the assets that were -- we assembled at verizon and we looked at our strength and said, look, we've been known as a network company and we're proud of that, by the way. we think we've built one of the best networks out there. that will be the foundation of our success. but we also said we wanted to be a platform company and a services company. and our lead in mobile certainly allows us to play in that space. so we are trying to take advantage of that. we've got really two or three key focus areas. one is the business that tim runs for us. we've also made some pretty significant investments in the

iot space. so recently we just announced the acquisition of two fleet companies, which expands our fleet business. and not only domestically but globally. one is closed, one we're still waiting for that one to close, would expect that to happen in fourth quarter. and then just this morning we announced the acquisition of a company called sensity which has a head start in some of the smart community work, so we're super proud about that. but it is about monetizing above the network. when we have the network business, that is great, but we also believe we have the right to play in the platform space and services as well. >> let's take a minute and talk about the internet of things because that is always fun and sexy. why -- maybe in general, what is it that verizon -- what is it that made them or you interested in that just as a general area of business? >> yeah, so internet of things is actual a space that verizon has been in for quite sometime. we've had relationships with automobile companies, oems, for

many years and had the original general motors business with on star and the connectivity part is something that we've done for quite sometime. last year we announced a platform called think space which allows application developers to come and write applications on top of that and then we also have some of our own branded services. we released financial numbers around this in our quarterly earnings so we're doing a couple of hundred million bucks a quarter and it is growing at 20% and so it is a place that we naturally with our distribution, with our networks, with the investments we've made in platforms and services, think that we can scale and that again is not only a domestic business, that is a global business. we do business with the car relationships in china, in europe, japan, so all of those are places that we continue to expand and delivering some is decent results on to. >> and i would imagine for a company the size of verizon, a couple of hundred million

dollars in revenue for the quarter is good but the excitement is around the potential for growth. >> we like the numbers that have billions, yeah. >> and then last thing on that, you mentioned you acquired a company called sensity, is that right. >> yes.sensity. >> yes. >> what was the rationale behind that acquisition. >> it's a company that has a lead for taking l.e.d. lighting and takes that to cities. they have 40 relationships across the u.s. where they're doing smart community work. and it just filled a space for us, not only from a talent perspective, the ceo is very talented and has a lot of headway in the space. so it not only accelerate our time to market. but gets us into existing relationships and a technology that helps complete some of our work. >> so yahoo acquisition didn't take all your appetite for acquiring start-ups, it looks like that's going to continue. >> we're doing many, the charter i have, if you will, is to stand

up several businesses that can generate or have the potential to generate billions of dollars of revenue for verzen in the future. the business that tim is running is one of those and yahoo is a big piece of that. but also tim did investments with millennial media and partnerships with microsoft. but i.o.t. is a space we're very active in as well. so both of those are getting some of my attention these days. >> so tim, it's been about a year plus since the verizon acquisition closed. how has aol changed in that time? how has it sort of slid into the broader verizon technology and organization? >> well you're there every day. >> but we're behind the janitor's closet, no one talks to us. >> it's gone very well. the theory behind the verizon deal was the combination of the two companies would help build essentially what was one of the largest mobile empowered media technology companies in the

world. since then they did the millennial deal, the microsoft deal. we've done a significant amount of investing in video. we're about to open a studio in new york city on the street, first internet-level street studio for aol build. overall and then most importantly i think we've set out when we did the deal with verizon, we had had a set of goals and aol we were striving to as a public company. and once we did the verizon deal, we redid those goals. and those goals have been significant driver of what we've done. so i think if you went back 15 months, and said, is you know aol and verizon going to be in a position where they're one of the largest consumer companies, one of the largest video companies, i think you would say maybe if they work really hard and today you wake up 10 months later and you say look they have all the assets in a portfolio. and if we do a good job working on those assets over the next few years i think we can build one of the most substantial companies on the planet. and second of all we did all of

those deals if you average them together at one time revenue. while you see massive valuations happening especially during the timeframe we're doing the deals from a financial standpoint, we're probably the only company in the world that's aggregated assets together that gets you to over a billion consumers and done it at one time revenue. there's always noise around what we do. but if you look at the hard-core facts and the financial facts and the fact that when aol was a stand-alone company we were able to beat the s&p 500 for the five or six years we were public, you know that is something i think that we take a lot of rigor and the strategy and we take a lot of rigor in making sure that the company will be healthy. in the future. and we're really, think people are generally pretty excited about the way the future is. so looking back at the verizon deal, hard to say it hasn't been a success. it feels like it's been a success. we have a lot of work to do, but it feels like it's been a success. >> one of the other things, too, just about verizon is we realized when we were setting up my organization and we wanted to put the new businesses in it, we

did establish some independence so that tim has the ability to go run his business, get the good stuff from verizon, but maybe not some of the stuff that might slow him down. we do the same thing with our fleet business. and our telematics business. it's important to recognize how do you protect the culture to run it at the pace you want to run it. >> so one of the things that verizon and aol are trying to work together is on the advertising side which i think presents a lot of opportunity and also risks in terms of privacy and maybe inappropriately using some of the data you have on the verizon side on the ad targeting side. can you talk a little about what you guys are doing to protect privacy? >> we've been very transparent about this. so we've got an opt-in process, with clear disclosure to customers, and we're working through how do we get the opt-ins so customers know exactly what we're doing. that's one of the rules certainly with the verizon side is that we need to make sure we

protect that from a brand perspective. and then what we've held up with our customers. we do have aggregated anonymous data that we can utilize, but any of the targeted stuff you, we absolutely follow the opt-in process. >> so anonymous, you don't opt-in to. >> anonymous, you can opt-out by targeted you have to opt-in. >> how does that appear? >> it's done through a program called verizon selects, a loyalty program. if you sign up for that you opt in to that. we look at a number of other things that have not yet hit the market. thinking about how we can give good value exchange for customers allowing us to use that and clear i disclosing that. but the selects process is the biggest way we do it today. >> another aspect of verizon moving into digital is the video app, go 90. how many people in the audience have watched videos on the go 90

app? i've got some hands, not a ton. >> those of you who worked for tech crunch should have raised your hands. you need to raise your hand. >> yes, definitely. live sports, live music, concerts, works really well. we had record numbers of viewers, for not only the super bowl, nba content. mexican soccer, premier, european league. some originals we've done with atv, targeted with 12-24-year-old girls, skewing

younger than that has done very well. some of the other content has not done as well. i think we're learning, we've learned about the platform as well. we've recently moved that to the aol tech stack and we're adding additional features. i would tell you i'm encouraged by engagement. we've learned a lot about content. you're going to see us continue to work the model and get it right. the other thing we did with "the runner." the first time we took content and moved it not only in the go 90 app. but across the digital platform of aol. that's really what you'll see more of as we think about content. we'll take it across the 90 app. but leverage content across all of the verizon and aol and soon-to-be assets. you'll see it on fios. and across 5g, you'll see that content show up there as well.

so i feel encouraged, i think again learned a lot. things that we would do differently. but with any new product i think you're going to have the learning curve. i think what's interesting for verizon is when verizon doing something typically around its networks or wireless business, you don't see us go out and test things. so this is a little bit different for us. i think you'll see us be successful, but we've got some things we want to change as we move forward. >> when you think, talk about this idea of taking the content and moving it across all the different properties, do you think that go 90 is necessarily central to verizon's video strategy going forward? could you see, i mean the exact mix of properties could you know, you're not necessarily wedded to all of it. >> go 90 is a piece of that. what we like about go 90 is it hits a mobile audience, obviously we have strength there. but we have most of the content showing up on any network. so it's not just the verizon network. it's a piece of the strategy, but it's not the entire strategy. >> so one thing i did want to

get to was that tim, i think last week it was a two-part "vanity fair" piece which was about arianna huffington leaving the "huffington post" and the implication is that you weren't necessarily happy with her performance and she had been kind of pushed out. is there any truth to that? >> i think you know first, that arianna huffington as a person and as a leader, i think we did her going-away party last wednesday night and i'll say the same thing here that i said at that party, which was she is somebody who is a world-class talent. world-class hard worker. and really put herself out there as an entrepreneur to do something that was really differentiated. and i think helped change the way that online news and information got done. when we acquire the "huffington post," it had 20 to 30 million users. the day she left, it was 170 million to 200 million. over 200 million users. so i think that almost any metric, it was u.s.-only now in

15, going to 16 countries overall. almost metric you look at it from where we bought it to when arianna left has been a huge success. i have a close personal relationship with arianna, her family, her daughters, her sister. and i think that i didn't read the "vanity fair" article, my guess is that you know, there's people in the media business love the drama and it's not, it's not show friends, it's show business. and you know our business with "huffington post" has done really well, it's a huge group of talented people. and i think we are going to aggressively pursue china becoming the number one -- trying to become the number one news provider in the world and i think yahoo news people are also really talented. i think the combination of what we've put together, arianna's original vision to where the "huffington post" is today, to where it's going to go, we're in a very, very good position for global news and we're going to attack that space aggressively. >> we're almost out of time.

one last thing i wanted to ask about. one of the things you talked about, tim, was the idea of turning aol/verizon, soon-to-be/yahoo, into one of the top tier digital internet media companies, i think on any almost any measure in terms of advertising, google and facebook take up the vast majority of the pie. how do we get from where we are now to actually being in the top tier? and do you really think that's possible? >> i'll do that briefly. i had our executive team over at my house last week for two days and we had some s.e.a.l. team 6 members over and we built a map, basically of the whole internet space. and i'm a huge reader of history and military history, and i officially believe, that you know we're going to win if we have the high ground, in certain areas. and i think there's two strategies i know that won't work. and one is the anything but google, anything but facebook strategy, that's not a strategy

that works. and the second is being a follower of facebook and google. i think the way we differentiate it at aol and nobody liked content, we bought the tech crunch in the "huffington post." before people got into video, we got heavily into video. and then we're going to work with the yahoo team to do the global strategy and money team at verizon. but you should, i would leave tech crunch listening to our talk, thinking that we're thinking deeply, not about google and facebook, but about doing things for clients. social is facebook and google is search, you know, our company is going to be brand. and that could be the brand you wake up in the morning. it could be yahoo, it could be the brand you look at in the tech space, tech crunch or it could be the best brand to advertise a platform in the world. which might be aol 1 or one of the yahoo platforms. so i think we, we're not planning on competing with facebook and google. we're probably the only company in the internet space that

partners with everyone. we partner with apple, amazon, google, facebook, samsung, you know we're partners with everybody. because we can win with partnerships and our strategy is differentiated enough to do that. i'm not worried about facebook and google. i'm worried about what we're doing together. that's kind of what we're focused on. >> that's a great note to end on. thanks again. > thanks ch . we continue our look at american history tv programs, normally seen weekends here on c-span 3. it begins with a discussion on the origins of the cold war, then u.s. democracy and international relations. and then the legacy of world war ii. american history tv. primetime tonight, at 8:00 p.m. eastern.

sunday in-depth will feature a live discussion on the presidency of barack obama. we're taking your phone calls, tweets, emails and facebook questions during the program. our panel includes april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio networks and author of "the presidency in black and white: my up-close view of three presidents and race in america." princeton university professor eddie glaude and pulitzer prize-winning journalist of the "washington post." watch in-depth live from noon to 3:00 eastern on sunday on book tv on c-span 2. the presidential inauguration of donald trump is friday, january 20th.

c span will have live coverage of all the day's events and ceremonies. watch live on c-span and c-span.org and listen live on the free c-span radio app. next, journalists talk about the challenges of covering emerging technology in silicon valley and around the country. panelists include wired magazine's editor, "new york times" deputy tech editor and "u.s.a. today's" digital editor. this is from the annual dawn or doom technology conference at purdue university in west lafayette, indiana. it's about 50 minutes. >> good morning, i'm jerry mccartney, purdue university cio and the director of the dawn or doom conference and i'd like to welcome you to this year's opening event for this year's dawn or doom. this is our third year and we're very excited about what the event has become. purdue is a global leader in