Huffington ascribed her departure to the desire to pursue her separate and new initiative, called Thrive Global, built around the concepts of wellness and striking a balance between work and personal realms.
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Arianna Huffington launched her original American website in 2005 and sold it to internet giant AOL in 2011.
“I really thought I could do both, but as we started building it up, I realized that it really needed my full attention”, she said in an interview. But it became clear that this was an illusion as Thrive went from an idea to a reality, with investors, staff and offices.
Verizon last month also announced it would buy Yahoo, whose online news business closely parallel The Huffington Post’s.
Amid widespread speculation over her future with the platform, Huffington put an end to rumors by issuing an optimistic memo to staff that made clear she’d be staying on for another four years, at a reported salary of million per year.
Thrive Global is described as a project created to combat workplace “burnout”.
In June, she sat down with ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis, where she talked about her new campaign to promote well-being and her own healthy routines, as well as the fact that she loves country music.
“The journey of the last 11 years has exceeded my wildest expectations”, Ms Huffington said, referring to the HuffPost, as it is also known.
Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, attends a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2014. The concept of a space where experts and celebrities can upload articles and opinion pieces has proved to be enormously popular on a global scale, with the site even going on to win the Pulitzer Prize. In June, however, the question of the co-founder’s standing appeared to be resolved when she inked a deal to remain president and E.I.C.at the Huffington Post until 2019.
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Other investors include Blue Pool Capital, Greycroft Partners, Bridgewater CEO Ray Dalio, Mohamed El-Erian (formerly with PIMCO), NBA player Andre Iguodala, and entrepreneur Sean Parker. The site now receives more than 100 million visitors each month, and has expanded outside of the USA, into Mexico, France, and the United Kingdom, among others. In the release, Huffington suggested the irony that leading the two companies would have caused her to burn out.
