Feb 9 (Reuters) – AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong
reversed his decision to cut employee retirement benefits and
apologized for remarks linking two women at the company with
“distressed babies” to its rising health care costs that set off
a fire storm of criticism.
Armstrong issued a memo to staffers on Saturday explaining
the company would change its 401(k) policy back to matching
contributions on per-period basis rather than one lump sum at
the end of the year.
“On a personal note, I made a mistake and I apologize for my
comments last week at the town hall when I mentioned specific
healthcare examples in trying to explain our decision making
process around our employee benefit programs,” Armstrong wrote
in a memo obtained by Reuters.
AOL declined to comment.
In a town hall meeting last week where Armstrong sought to
clarify why the company cut its employee retirement plan, he
singled out two unnamed women who had babies with health
problems and the impact of President Obama’s health care reforms
for adding millions of dollars to AOL’s bill.
The comment sparked a media backlash and overshadowed AOL’s
fourth quarter results, after the online media and entertainment
company reported its best growth in a decade.
