AOL chief exec turns down $2.1m

AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong turned down a bonus of at least US$1.5 million ($2.1 million) in 2009, the company reported yesterday.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the internet company said Armstrong was entitled to the bonus but the company's compensation committee accepted his request to forego it last week.

AOL, which separated from media conglomerate Time Warner in December and began trading once again as a stand-alone company, is slated to report its fourth-quarter results today.

AOL, which is based in New York, rose to fame in the 1990s with its legacy dial-up internet access business and bought Time Warner at the height of the dot-com boom in 2001. That corporate union didn't work out, though, and AOL's main business began to decline after peaking in 2002 - hurt by the rise of speedier broadband internet connections.

In recent years, AOL has been trying to reinvent itself as a content and advertising company. This has been difficult, though, as its advertising revenue has not been able to offset the drop in dial-up revenue.

- AP