CEO of AOL fires employee during speech [AUDIO]

Tim Armstrong, CEO of American communications giant AOL, surprised thousands of employees when he fired a creative director in the middle of a conference.

Armstrong interrupted the speech he was giving to Patch employees to fire the staff member for taking a photo of him with his phone, reported news.com.au

In a recording, Armstrong can be heard saying, "Abel, put that camera down right now! Abel, you're fired. Out!"

LISTEN: AOL CEO Tim Armstrong fires employee mid-speech

After a short pause, he continued with his speech saying, "If you guys think that AOL has not been committed to Patch, and won't stay committed to Patch, you're wrong".

Tim Armstrong is also the co-founder of Patch Media, a news website acquired by AOL for $US7 million (SG9$ million) in 2009.

In his speech he emphasised on how much the website meant to him, and hopes to rescue AOL from its decline in the past decade.