AOL plans high-level layoffs at Millennial Media after acquisition

AOL plans to lay off 18 high-level Millennial Media employees when its acquisition deal for the adtech company is complete, according to an SEC filing.
Among the employees who will not continue post-merger are CEO Michael Barrett, the SEC filing states. Barrett will receive a $2.2 million “golden parachute” severance package, including equity and cash. Also named are President of Managed Media Jason Kelly, Executive Vice President of Strategy Marc Theermann and General Counsel Ho Shin. Kelly and Theermann will each receive more than $1 million in severance, the filing states. All of the laid off employees are being offered severance, the filing states.
The eliminated positions were seen as redundant in the merger, the filing states. The filing was first flagged by Baltimore Business Journal.
“As part of the transition process, Millennial, AOL and Acquisition Sub determined which positions would be redundant or unnecessary following the Merger and eliminated those positions,” the filing states. “Where there was more than one employee in a position being eliminated, the employee was selected for layoff based on performance and on relative skills and abilities to do the remaining future work.”
The remaining layoffs were mostly made up of high-level positions like the Director of Product Management, Chief People Officer, Media Group President, Sr. Technical Recruiter, Director of Product Operations, Senior VP of Business Operations, VP of Engineering Ops, Senior VP of Global Monetized Solutions, Creative Director and VP of Demand Sales. Ages of those who lost their job range from 26-56.
The deadline for finalizing the deal was supposed to be midnight Friday, but the companies extended it to Oct. 22 to allow investors to review the filing.
AOL and Millennial Media announced the $238 million acquisition deal in early September following a summer of speculation. Both have large offices in Baltimore that grew in different ways out of past AOL acquisition, Advertising.com. AOL, which was acquired earlier this year by Verizon, is looking to bolster its mobile advertising capabilities.
For its part, Millennial Media struggled to compete with advertising giants Google and Facebook following a giant IPO in 2012. Cofounders Paul Palmieri and Chris Brandenburg left the company more than a year before the acquisition.
AOL declined comment.