He said Time Warner Cable Inc. and AOL Inc. have both done better as independent companies, after Time Warner Inc. spun them off years ago.

WSJ: Time Warner 1Q earnings climb, beats Street

Armstrong, who recently said he sort-of, perhaps, possibly might be interested in buying Time Inc. even though the AOL- Time Warner merger of 13 years ago was widely considered one of the worst in business history, opened the advertising technology conference ad:tech in San Francisco today with a packed keynote address.

FORBES: CEO Tim Armstrong Makes Case (Again) That AOL Is Finally On The Mend

Everything from dumping Time Inc. to selling AOL's access business to a Time Warner Cable (nyse: TWC - news - people ) spinoff is a possibility under his reign.

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