Michael Seto/Business InsiderAOL CEO Tim ArmstrongAOL CEO Tim Armstrong is denying reports that The Huffington Post will be completely spun out, according to an interview he did Tuesday with HuffPo's Alyona Minkovski.
"AOL will always be an owner of HuffPost. And now Verizon will be an owner of HuffPost," Armstrong said after Verizon's $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL was announced Tuesday. "HuffPost will always be a cornerstone of AOL. The Verizon deal allows us to accomplish many of the things we were talking about doing with other partners in terms of scaling HuffPost. The Huffington Post will be here, and it'll be part of the company."
AOL initially acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million in 2011. But on Tuesday, Re/code's Kara Swisher published a report that said The Huffington Post could be spun off as part of Verizon's acquisition of AOL.
Sources tell Swisher that AOL has been in talks with Axel Springer, a German media company, and private-equity firms, to explore a sale or joint venture of HuffPo.
In his interview with HuffPo Tuesday, Armstrong says AOL will always be an owner - not necessarily the sole owner of HuffPo - so per Re/code's earlier report, there could be other opportunities for ownership of HuffPo in the future, too.
Other AOL media properties like Engadget and TechCrunch were not part of these talks, according to AOL sources who spoke with BuzzFeed on Tuesday. There are also no layoffs planned for any of AOL's media properties, according to these sources.
Post-acquisition, Armstrong will stay with the company to run the AOL business, which will operate as a division of Verizon.