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If anything speaks to how the mobile industry is changing, it is the fact that Verizon spent more than $4 billion this year to acquire AOL.
Locked in a price war with smaller rivals Sprint and T-Mobile over data plans, both AT&T and Verizon are looking to new areas where it can make money, especially video. Doing that means having a strong advertising engine, and that is what Verizon hopes it has acquired with AOL.
That’s why we are thrilled to announce that longtime AOL chief Tim Armstrong will be joining the lineup for our Code/Mobile conference, which takes place Oct. 7-8 at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
It also comes just as Verizon is readying the launch of a long-promised mobile video service and follows the combined company’s announced plans to buy Millennial Media.
Armstrong joins a star-studded lineup that includes Android co-founder Andy Rubin, Apple Pay head Jennifer Bailey, AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg and Fitbit CEO James Park, along with top executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter.
This year’s event focuses on how the technology that powers the smartphone is moving into new areas, such as cars and wearables, and how ubiquitous smartphones are reshaping whole industries, especially finance and payments.
We’re also doing some things we’ve never done before to boost discussion at the event and present ideas in new formats. The event will kick off with a presentation from Andreessen Horowitz’s Benedict Evans.
So unless you want to be left staring at your phone while the conversation takes place, you might want to register now.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
