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Wouldn’t it be great if you could sell your company to a larger firm and then cry foul when they don’t do exactly what you want after the sale? That’s what’s happening right now at AOL as TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is attempting to wage war against AOL and company editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington.
Arrington took his first shot at AOL, claiming that his $30 million buyout one year ago came with the promise that AOL would honor the site’s editorial independence and now that Michael is losing control to the company’s Editor-In-Chief Arriana Huffington, he says they must keep their editorial promise or sell the company back to him.
It’s no secret that Arrington doesn’t get along with Arianna, however she has been given full editorial control at the newly formed AOL Huffington Post Media Group. Recently Arianna is said to have asked CEO Tim Armstrong for permission to sack Arrington after his newly launched tech venture fund was largely seen as a conflict of interest by just about every media watchdog group on the face of the planet.
In the end if Huffington wants Arrington ousted it will likely happen since she’s considered the linchpin of the company’s content strategy and while TechCrunch writers say the site won’t be TechCrunch without Arrington, it’s likely a move that will happen.
It’s not often we get to see a small company bought out by a larger company, only to have the smaller company’s CEO take control over the larger company but in many ways that’s exactly what Arianna Huffington has done at AOL.
