Tim Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer of multinational mass media company AOL Inc., made a rare public apology. The CEO sent a memo to workers expressing he was sorry for the way he laid off an employee at an assembly last week.

Armstrong fired AOL's creative director for Patch, Abel Lenz. Patch is currently AOL's unit with a collection of local websites dealing with community news. Lenz's removal transpired in a room full of personnel along with a thousand other people who were listening on an August 9, 2013 conference call.

"I am writing you to acknowledge the mistake I made last Friday during the Patch all-hands meeting when I publicly fired Abel Lenz," Armstrong stated yesterday in the memo. "I am the CEO and leader of the organization, and I take that responsibility seriously."

Armstrong called the meeting last week to talk about cutbacks at Patch. AOL spent over USD300 million to develop Patch's websites. The Patch division's yearly costs ranged between USD126 million and USD162 million. Last year, its sales more than doubled to USD35 million.