BREAKING: AOL Still Exists (Oh, and it Fired a Guy for No Reason)

During an AOL workplace conference call on Friday, where CEO Tim Armstrong (not to be confused with the epic punk rocker) wanted to talk about Patch, the company’s local news network, things went awry. A day before, during the company’s earnings call, Armstrong said that Patch’s network of sites would be reduced from 900 to 600, which as you might imagine, got many worrying about their job security. Thus, this next call had a dual-purpose: to talk about the future of Patch, and to help boost morale.

AOL’s Tim Armstrong

I don’t think one of these things ended up being accomplished.

Not long into the call, Armstrong noticed that Abel Lenz, Patch’s Creative Director, had a camera, which led to him shouting, “Abel, put that camera down, now“, and a moment later, “Abel, you’re fired. Out.“

It might have seemed like a bit of a joke during the call, but it was revealed later that Abel was in fact fired. The stumper: Yahoo! states that Abel often took pictures during these calls.

Before Armstrong fired Abel, he said, “If you don’t believe what I’m about to say, I’m going to ask you to leave Patch…We have to get Patch into a place where it’s going to be successful.“

Clearly, he must believe the path to success is lined with uncomfortable employees.