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AOL To Be Purchased By T-Online?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the moving-around-like-a-hockey-puck dept.

Sique writes "The german newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports on its website, that the german ISP T-Online wants to buy AOL. The article is titled American Dream, but the actual wording is german. Ask the fish for help." There's also the article in Der Spiegel about the potential purchase as well; you can also check out T-Online's site.

47 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Not surprising... by swordboy · · Score: 2, Informative

    This isn't surprising considering that they just dropped AOL from the "AOL Time Warner name.

    --

    Life is the leading cause of death in America.
    1. Re:Not surprising... by gfxguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yeah, but that's ALL they did... it was a name change only, it's not like the company split.

      As an employee, I wish they would - AOL consumed Time Warner because they had artificially high stock prices and decided it was time for something with real value. They've been dragging us down ever since.

      Don't get me wrong - the press is really hard on AOL. Yes, customers are leaving, but they still have the most customers and charge the highest price. They are still making tons of cash, they're just making less and less of it.

      While I wish the company would split, I don't see how another ISP could buy out the largest ISP in the world. Wishful thinking.

      Full disclosure: I don't read German, I didn't read the article, so maybe I'm missing something.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    2. Re:Not surprising... by perly-king-69 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Don't forget also that last week EMI and Time Warner were in talks to merge their music divisions

      AOL/Time Warner demerger on the cards

      --

      --
      This sig is inoffensive.

    3. Re:Not surprising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe T-Online can do for AOL what Daimler did for Chrysler.

    4. Re:Not surprising... by BigBir3d · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not just an ISP. The also own T-Mobile (cell carrier - biggest in Germany I think, and growing in the US). They are tied in with Bergelsmann group (not sure on that spelling). Unlike AOL, there is real money backing up T.

    5. Re:Not surprising... by Zeinfeld · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Don't get me wrong - the press is really hard on AOL. Yes, customers are leaving, but they still have the most customers and charge the highest price. They are still making tons of cash, they're just making less and less of it.

      I see AOL as the Apple of the space. If you wind back to the days of the original Mac Apple was making its money from being the easy to use personal computer and charging a premium for doing so. AOL is in pretty much exactly the same niche and with the same limitatations.

      The Mac interface was great when the problem was persuading people they could use a computer, to overcome the fear factor. But it was much less useful and started to become a major handicap once there was a large number of technically savy users who wanted to move beyond the one button mouse. [Yes I know you can buy aftermarket add ons, try adding a button to the integrated laptop mouse area, bit of a pain if you want the machine to host an X-Windows session from a linux box app that assumes three buttons)

      AOL has the same problem, they can't take the training wheels off without loosing their core market.

      The other problem AOL face is that their users quickly outgrow the walled garden content AOL offers. When the Whitehouse first went online AOL sold access to the Whitehouse web site as a 'premium' service at several cents a minute extra, meanwhile the same content was available for free.

      At one time it looked like there was a market for 'premium' content but that model only really works if the publishers of the content have no direct distribution channel to the consumer. Once Web sites found that they could support themselves through advertising revenue the need for AOL as a distribution channel went away. Exactly why would I pay AOL to screw up my broadband connection for me?

      The problem with buying a company that has a shrinking customer base in an expanding market is that the company may well go the way of buggy-whip Inc. AOL looks to me to be in a situation very similar to that described in the innovator's dilema, in this case the disruptive factor is not so much a change in technology (although broadband could be argued as such) as a change in the user base.

      Companies like AOL and Kodak can probably run profitably for quite a few more years. But if they cannot find a replacement for their core product they will go the way of Polaroid. Yes Kodak will continue to sell lots of celluloid film for ten years or more, but every person who buys a digital camera represents a shrinking of their market. The 35mm format will not die, people still buy medium and large format cameras even today. But Kodak's business depends on selling through the ammusement park kiosk.

      AOL has a more severe problem, their product depends on network effects. As their customer base shrinks so does the desirability of the product.

      --
      Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
      Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
  2. So.. by rf0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does that mean they would be called Time Warner Aol T-Online or TWAT for short? :)

    Rus

    --
    Cheap UK and US VPS
    1. Re:So.. by wo1verin3 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I don't care what they call it, as long as they don't have a movie calls: Sie haben Post

  3. Uh Huh by Talisman · · Score: 3, Funny

    "...german ISP T-Online wants to buy AOL..."

    I want to buy AOL, too. I just don't have the money for it...

    Talisman

    --

    "Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
    1. Re:Uh Huh by Zapd · · Score: 2, Funny
      Yeah, Me too!!
      > > I want to buy AOL, too
      > Me too

      --
      The imp hits!
  4. hacker haven just got larger by UnderAttack · · Score: 3, Interesting

    T-Online got probably the most useless abuse department of all major ISPs. I wonder what they will do to AOL? Gut whatever security they got to make it profitable?

    --
    ---- join dshield.org Distributed Intrusion Detec
    1. Re:hacker haven just got larger by DocSnyder · · Score: 2
      T-Online got probably the most useless abuse department of all major ISPs. I wonder what they will do to AOL?

      Both AOL's and T-Online's abuse departments aren't that bad. If you know some people who work there and inform them directly about abuse, they'll react quickly and correctly.

      What's wrong on both ISPs is the way abuse notifications are being handled officially, that is, if you don't know any people there and inform them via official addresses. abuse@aol.net seems to be equivalent with /dev/null - e. g. the German AOL abuse team won't ever see any emails sent to this address, and if they do, it's way too late. abuse@aol.de (which might be useful to reach them directly) doesn't exist, that's why aol.de is listed on rfc-ignorant.org.

      T-Online has a slightly different problem. Their Whois records list "abuse@t-ipnet.de" for abuse notifications. A few days or even a week later you'll receive a message by T-IPnet Abuse, telling you that they just forwarded it to T-Online.

      /.
      DocSnyder.

  5. Already denied... by DarkDust · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to Heise online this has already been denied by T-Online (sorry, German only).

    Basically, what they are saying in that news article is that some spokesman from T-Online claims buying AOL would be "economical nonsense". But T-Online has about 4 billion Euro cash with which they'd like to buy some companies. And while T-Online is the biggest online provider of Europe it is largely unknown outside of Europe, thus buying AOL would make sense to some people because T-Online likes to expand and conquer markets outside of Europe.

    1. Re:Already denied... by pmz · · Score: 3, Funny

      "expand and conquer"

      Those Germans really need a new business model.

      --
      Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
  6. Pretty soon you'll be hearing... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sie haben Post (You've got mail)

  7. German AOL's Creation by ogiller · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember when AOL started its German division it was a joint venture (50/50) with Bertelsmann (Who also bought Napster). I wonder if they are buying the whole thing or just a portion?

  8. Incredible by arvindn · · Score: 3, Funny
    They're thinking of a purchase price of a mere $ 1 billion. That's less than a hundredth of what Time warner acquired them for 2 years ago!

  9. The Germans by pubjames · · Score: 3, Interesting


    Consider - worlds largest post company - Deutsche Post. The airline that carries the most passengers - Lufthansa. The Germans own a good many of the biggest companies in the auto industry. And Deutsche Telecom (which I believe includes T-Online) is one of the world's largest telecomms.

    I think people fail to realise how powerful the German business sector is. If Germany was the same size of the USA, I'm sure it would be the top dog at the moment, not the USA. And now that the European European Union is creating the biggest single global market, Germany should be able to increase it's economy even further as it is at the heart of Europe.

    1. Re:The Germans by mseeger · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Hi,

      One problem with these figures is the exchange rate between Euro and the US$. 18 months ago, when one Euro was 0.86 US$, your figures were "correct".

      Nowadays one Euro is woth about 1.15 US$. Suddenly the GDP measured in US$ per capita jumped up nearly 30%. So did germany close the gap while being in recession? No!

      Another problem about the GDP is that the US (AFAIK) gives it an uplift due to the quality increase. This isn't done in Europe.

      Regards, Martin

      P.S. Let's not play "my ecconomy is bigger than yours". For my part, there are a lot of things, i think the US is doing better. But there are a lot of things too, i consider worse.

    2. Re:The Germans by uradu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      True, but then again the British national hobby IS to put down the Germans at every opportunity. If you read The Economist regularly, when reporting on the German economy, if they left out the name of the country you'd get the impression they're talking about some inconsequential two-bit Third World country. Don't get me wrong, no one is harder on themselves than the Germans (just read Der Spiegel and you want to slash your wrists over all the doom and gloom), but it's kind of ironic that the ones pointing their fingers the most are those with their own fair share of problems.

      So Britain went for the quick fix short term gains by throwing pretty much their entire social net out the window in the image of their masters across the pond. The Germans OTOH in their typical stubbornness and reluctance to change cling on to their economic model from the '80s, leading to respective blips and dips in the growth charts. Still, they're aware that change is required. I'd say wait another ten years before gloating. The '90s are hardly a solid economic barometer, lots of wanky business went on there (ahem, AOL?!). Besides, sooner or later the outrageous British defence spending is going to come home to roost. I'd say in the not-too-distant future "Operation Freedom" will show up as a big fat dip in the British bottom line, and some politicians will get a fair spanking.

    3. Re:The Germans by azzy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wrong. National hobby is to put down the French. And we're not that dissimilar to the Germans. Their national hobby is to invade the French.

    4. Re:The Germans by ducomputergeek · · Score: 2, Informative
      I lived in Germany last year and not all is grand. Unemployement is still overing at a national average of 10% and as high as 20% in some parts of the former east Germany. Their high social program costs are also a problem. I was living in Lueneburg southwest of Hamburg and up until mid december last year, it cost me 10,40 Euro to ride the train round trip with a youth ticket. Then they did away with the youth fare, much to the dismay of all of the students at the Fochhochschule.

      The only reason that Germany has maintained its manufacturing sector is through the use of technology and robotics. Otherwise, the cost of labor would be prohibitive. Same reason why Japan and German companies have car factories in the United States, we're their Mexico so to speak because its cheaper here in the United States.

      Also, Voicestream (now T-Mobile) here in the United States has been nothing but a loser for the telecom giant. But that's okay because of the German 15-year outlook in business. American businesses, as a result of our finicial markets, are too focused on next quarter results. Let's say a company spends a large amount on R&D or marketing that will not see results for months if not even years and looses a bunch of money for a few quarters, the CEO is at a high risk of being fired. That is why many choose to cut R&D and marketing. The first move will shoot themselves in the foot, often not apparent for a number of years, the other might hurt them if they were spending more than was necessary on marketing, which is easy to do. Even as a small business owner, a $5000 marketing budget can go rather quickly for a quarter. However, with a 15 year goal of x, if there are some off years to reach that goal, its not a big of a deal.

      --
      "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
    5. Re:The Germans by tsangc · · Score: 2, Funny

      Here's your obligatory Simpsons quote:

      Burns plays hardball, managing to repurchase the plant for only $50 million.
      The Germans reluctantly agree...

      Horst: [threatingly] We Germans aren't all smiles und sunshine.
      Burns: [recoils in mock horror]
      Oooh, the Germans are mad at me. I'm so scared! Oooh, the Germans!
      [hiding behind Smithers] Uh oh, the Germans are going to get me!
      Horst: Stop it!
      Man 2: Stop, sir.
      Burns: Don't let the Germans come after me.
      Oh no, the Germans are coming after me.
      Man 2: Please stop the `pretending you are scared' game, please.
      Horst: Stop it! Stop it!
      Burns: [brief pause, then resumes]
      No! They're so big and strong!
      Man 2: Stop it.
      Horst: Stop it, Mr. Burns.
      Man 2: Please stop pretending you are scared of us, please, now.
      Burns: Oh, protect me from the Germans! The Germans...
      Horst: Burns, STOP IT!

    6. Re:The Germans by torpor · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I just moved to Germany after a 15-year stint in Southern California.

      All I can say is this:

      German business is a blatant economic force to be reckoned with, if you're an American business. Germans are hot on your heels in pretty much every sector, and then some...

      It is only after actually living here for a while that I've come to sense a value in the characterization of Germans by Americans.

      The West is a Wilde place sometimes ...

      --
      ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  10. Please release IM, let IM go... by markxsd · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Surely 80% of the Instant Messaging market is the only asset AOL have that's worth anything to anyone?? Apart from that, what else is there? Millions of Joe 6 DDoS drones... Netscape seems to have been abandoned, it's worth nothing now, if it was ever worth anything in the first place...

    If this is more than an American Dream, let's hope that an outcome will be that AOL will loosen their grip on the IM market. The closed model they've been trying to enforce has been holding back a world of possibilities for Jabber and IM client development.

    1. Re:Please release IM, let IM go... by hetairoi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      what else is there?

      oh, I don't know, maybe tens of millions of people paying $23.95/month for internet service, a large userbase with disposable cash to advertise to, and a nearly ubiquitous brand name?

      Sure, AOL is starting to crumble and the TimeWarner merger turned out badly, but there is still a huge amount of possiblity for AOL. Given the right management and strategy.

      --
      you're all figments of my deranged imagination
  11. Funniest "fish" error ever by SuperBanana · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The german newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports on its website, that the german ISP T-Online wants to buy AOL.[snip] Ask the fish for help."

    Running AOL's profit/loss statements and investor reports through The Fish are about the only thing that could explain someone actually -wanting- AOL right now...

    About the only thing I've ever found The Fish useful for was once confusing the crap out of a friend visiting Italy by making her think I 'spoke' formal Italian. That was good for a few days before another friend spoiled it and told her...

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
  12. english translation by ponxx · · Score: 5, Informative

    by yours truly... in a rush so don't complain if it's not 100% accurate (apologies for the dodgy english as well):

    "American Dream"

    T-online has lots of money and high ambitions, one option is the take-over of AOL

    For years it was a duel that electrified the internet public. Deutsche Telekom with T-online vs. the conqueror from the US: AOL.

    The opponents used all means to fight for markets in europe, including law-suits, dumping prices and advertising campaigns. A Particular twist was added when the (german) media company Bertelsman headed by Thomas Middelhoff, worked together with the Americans.

    Today, all has changed. Since Spring 2000 Bertelsmann is not involved with AOL anymore and Middelhoff is a partner with Investcorp in London.

    He searches for investment opportunities in the entire world and has particularly good contacts to the US, where he is on the board of the NYT. From the deals of the 90s he still knows many people at Time Warner, who euphorically bought AOL 4 years ago but is now unhappy with the online-business.

    Time Warner already dropped AOL from the name and are apparently thinking of seeling large parts of the company. The most likely candidate is according to sources of the SZ the T-online AG who has been striving for international expansion for a while, but not achieved its aims in this area.

    One idea is for the germans to hold 80% of AOL shares while 30% stay with Time Warner, a cooperation that would change the media-landscape. It would happen due to the deal-making of Middelhoff.

    It is the old Bertelsmann Boss and now Investment banker who has aided the talks between T-online and Time-Warner. Information from T-online sources suggest that a meeting between TW boss Richard PArsons and T-online Boss Thomas Holtrop has already occured.

    The suggested price-tag is ~1 Bn Dollars. That's a long way away from the former astronomical valuations of the company once promoted by Middelhoff friend Steve Case.

    At it's maximum AOL bought Time Warner for 112 Bn Dollar. Recently AOL lost customers, currently there are about 25 Million.

    It woudl be easy for Holtorp and Col to pay for the deal. T-online still has 4 Bn Euros. This capital needs a targe so that publicly traded T-online corp can achieve its ambitious growth targets.

    Middelhoff was not available for comment. A t-online spokes-person didn't want to commen on the rumours: "Every quarter we're asked "What are you doing with your money?"

    Fundamentally there are two major parts of strategy. One is inorganic growth, by purchases and by waiting on consolidation of the market,.

    A deal with AOL would have the particular advantage that T-online would get a foot-hold in the american market. Co-operations with sister-firm T-mobile are important as the companies work together on "T-Zones" where T-online supplise contents, which could be important for the US investments of T-mobile.

    The Project AOL is top secret. A final decision has not been made. There are risks, in particular in terms of regulators. In Germany AOL never made major inroads. It is likely that after a merger AOL germany would disappear.

    On Tuesday T-online has declared a quarterly profit for the first time. T-online now has 12.9 Mn customers, 9% more than last year. 4/5 of these live in Germany, so it's time for a jump. Yes, t-online is on the look-out says Holtrop, and it would not be years until he has something to announce...

  13. Re:Hello? by ponxx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    T-online is a publicly traded company that was spun off from Deutsche Telekom. ~80% of the shares are still owned by Deutsche Telekom. The article claims T-online has 4 Bn. Euros in cash reserves, which would be more than enough to buy AOL.

    I'm not sure the European authorities would block the deal as T-online so far is almost completely restricted to activity in Germany while AOL has very few customers there, so a merger would not change the diversity in any market significantly... but it's still a big risk...

  14. They're all alike (was: Re:hacker haven ...) by Qbertino · · Score: 4, Funny

    AOL got security? What's that? An inhouse media player replacement?

    Honestly, when it comes to security or any other area that requires basic brain function I'd say the big ISPs are a all the same: Utterly useless.

    It's countless times I've called the T-Online Hotline, asked if their mail server was down or the TDSL dialin node was down or some other informal question and every time I've gotten something like this:

    Blockhead:"What's your error message?"

    Me:"I don't think my error messages are of any use to you."

    Blockhead:"What Mailer do you use?"

    Me:"*SIGH* K-Mail."

    Blockhead:"We only support Outlook or Netscape."

    [Meanwhile down in Hell: Satan marks up another Eternity Candidate]

    Me:"I know.(I'm not gonna explain to him that E-Mail is a Service while Outlook and Netscape are Mailers and what that all means) I actually just wanted to know if you Mailserver is down."

    Blockhead: "What Windows do you use?"

    Me: "I use Linux."

    Blockhead: "Oh. Well, we don't support Linux." (NOTE THE SIGNIFICANCE: We're in Germany, so he's actually heard the word 'Linux' before)

    [Back in Hell: Satan marks Mr. Blockhead up for extra special skinning, boiling and chainsaw subdividing treatment upon arrival.]

    Me: "I know.(I'm certainly NOT gonna explain the difference between an Internet Service and an OS to him) I just wanted to know if you Mailserver is down... Could I speak to second level please?"

    Blockhead: "Well, all I can say is that due to our troubletickets the Mailserver is up and running and second level won't tell you anything different."

    Me: "Thank you very much".

    *KLICK* *Duuuuu* (german dialtone)

    I seriously doubt it is _any_ better with AOL right now.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:They're all alike (was: Re:hacker haven ...) by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hahahahaha, I used to go though that with my old dialup ISP after the local teleco bought them out. They had messed up DNS configurations (A records for the IPs but no PTRs) that made using ssh and irc (amoung other things) range from a general pain in the ass to nearly impossible.

      Have you ever tried to explain to a Level 1 tech how DNS works? "Sorry, we don't support IRC or Linux sir.". After a couple of weeks yelling at them I finally got to talk to the manager of the tech. support ppl and get a name of the head tech guy at corporate to complain to.

      Called him up and explained the principal of correctly configured DNS. Problem was fixed two days after that. I no longer use Frontier at home, but my company has a commercial DSL line with them in one of our satellite offices. That can be a fun call to Level 1 too...

      Me: Is your DSL in Whitney Point down?
      Blockhead: What lights on your router are on?
      Me: I don't know, I'm not in that office. Just tell me, is the service down or not?
      Blockhead: What OS are you running?
      Me: (sighing) Linux, we run a VPN setup
      Blockhead: We don't support that.
      Me: Actually yes, according to your sales people, you _do_ support VPNs. All I need to know is if the service is down and when it is expected to come back up.
      Blockhead: Sir, we don't support non-standard operating systems.
      Me: Do you support ICMP Pings? Because I can't ping my box. Is the connection down or not?
      Blockhead: I don't know what that is. What lights are on your router?
      Me: Let me talk to your supervisor please.

      I'm also famous for calling in and demanding a supervisor right off the bat...

      Blockhead: Thank you for calling [insert company name here] support, my name is Steve, how may I help you?
      Me: Let me talk to a supervisor please.
      Blockhead: Sir I can help you.
      Me: Steve, you don't want to help me. Let me talk to your supervisor please.
      Blockhead: No, sir I can help you.
      Me: Ok you asked for it... [begin running explanation of how to maintain an ISP with decent uptimes, explain my experience in the ISP business and the uptimes we managed when I was running things, explain how much money my company pays for this connection, which currently appears to be down, regardless of what lights on my router are currently on, off or blinking]
      Blockhead: Let me get my supervisor for you sir....

      Ah, sometimes I actually take a twisted form of pleasure in it ;) How sad is that?

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re:They're all alike (was: Re:hacker haven ...) by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I don't mean to pick on you, but when they ask what you're running, humor them and say "Windows XP".

      It's the principal of having to jump though hoops to report an outage on a commercial-grade account that my company pays several hundred dollars a month for. I do feel bad for the Level 1 techs themselves (I used to be one), but not the company that hires them.

      I had a similar problem with a Verizon ISDN circuit once. My router (Cisco 776) was reporting an error of "Error 3 - no Route" every time it tried to dial. The idiot that I spoke to told me "We'll send someone out to test the line, but if there aren't any problems, we are going to charge you".

      They dispatched someone who did loopback tests and pronounced the line clean and functional. I told them I would try a spare router (another 776) the next day and see if it worked or not -- I wasn't discounting that it could be our equipment, even though I doubted it. No shock, the spare router had the same error message.

      They then proceeded to tell me it was my configuration and they didn't support my router (they'd be too happy to support it for $75/hr). I told them this was bullshit -- said configuration had worked fine for years, and wasn't changed prior to the router not working.

      This went back and fourth for the next two days (at one point they even claimed that they LOST my ticket and all the notes attached to it) before (after yelling at nearly every person I talked to -- every shread of patience I had was gone at this point) I got a co tech on the line who worked with me on solving the problem (she had me initiating ISDN calls to various numbers while she traced them). Turns out, somebody changed the reroot order in one of their tadem switches (? that means nothing to me, but I'm not a telco weenie) and that caused the calls to disappear into the ether. Why they didn't make this connection earlier is beyond me. If one of my setups stops working the first thing I do is look at anything that has been changed over the last couple of days....

      By this point it had been down for 72 hours. I had three different tickets open on this issue before I finally got the knowledgeable CO Tech on the phone. She was helpful and actually knew what she was talking about. Every other idiot told me the problem was on "my end", accused me of "not knowing how to configure your own equipment", (my retort to that being "I guess Cisco's CCNP certification is overrated then"), and "We'll fix it, but it'll cost $75/hr." Three weeks after this problem was solved we received an invoice for the initial visit that did not solve or even diagnosis the problem. Needless to say, we did not pay said invoice...

      It's even more amusing to me that the little Mom & Pop ISP I worked for could go three years without a major outage (the outage that did occur was due to a car hitting a telephone pole outside of our building -- beyond our control) yet major national ISPs with (for all intents and purposes) infinite resources can't manage the same feat, even for their commercial customers. The situation has stabilized somewhat now, but initially the DSL account in question would go down at least once every two weeks for half an hour or so. And that doesn't count the little 30 second "hiccups" that occurred from time to time.

      I did eventually speak with the manager of the tech support and got a satisfactory answer out of him -- too few techs employed for the number of calls, company refusing to give out another contact number for non-tech support problems, stressed out customers blaming his people, etc etc. We had quite the mutual rant session for awhile.

      Bottom line: I understand outages occur and they are beyond the control of the avg guy at tech support. Just don't read to me from your sheet about router lights and operating systems when you have a known outage on your screen and an estimated time of repair for said outage. If you do, I'm going to rip you a new one, and rip your supervisor a

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  15. Re:Hello? by ahillen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    f I remember correctly, T-Online is owned by Deutsche Telekom

    Right. ;)

    While T-Online is profitable, Deutsche Telekom is not...

    Wrong. Deutsche Telekom [which has the 4 divisions T-Online (Internet), T-Mobile (cell phone service), T-Com (fixed line service, basically the German fixed line network), and T-Systems (something like extended IT services)] is quite profitable right now. They still have huge amount of depths though from the times they purchased expensive 3G UMTS licenses and bought Voicestream for a huge load of money. But they are strongly reducing that depths, and the company is profitable. Actually, the just released their financial statement for the first 9 months of this year today (www.telekom3.de/en-p/inve/2-bu/cont/2003/thir/031 113-report-two-ar.html)

  16. Re:Why would anyone want to buy AOL? by AVee · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why would anyone want to buy AOL after when Time Warner dropped AOL from it's name? I thought it was already a fact that AOL isn't making money.

    Well, first off, T-Online sure is making money and this whould be a way of buying a huge amount of customers. T-Online wants to grow and will have a hard time doing so by just attracting new customers, must people are online somewhere allready, so it's either convincing people to switch to T-Online wich will costs loads of marketing money and will require massive infrastructure investments, or buying those customers. The article talks about a price of 1 billion dollar. For 25 million customers plus the infrastrucure to support them plus a very well known brand name this might be a good purchase. Just compare the price of 40 dollar per customer to a 'Switch now, get the first 6 months for free' campain...
    Secondly, T-Online has money to burn, so they can afford to take some time to turn it into a profitable company, starting by dumping all personnel that will be 'duplicate' when the two company's merge.

  17. NNNNooooooooo Not *that* jingle! by Space+cowboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    T-mobile are the only company in the history of humanity to have a more-annoying jingle to their adverts than intel.

    God I hate that jingle.

    Simon

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
  18. Re:T-Online related to T-Mobile? by ahillen · · Score: 2, Informative

    Does anyone know if these companies (T-Online and T-Mobile) are related?

    Yepp. Both companies are part of Deutsche Telekom. (T-Mobile 100%, T-Online 75%).
    See the Deutsche Telekom site for more info.

  19. Not a big effect by El+Volio · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Disclosure: I work for a telecom company with a pretty successful ISP and wireless unit that obviously competes with both T-Mobile and AOL. This is my personal opinion, though, and I don't represent it as being that of my employer.

    These two fit together well, if for no other reason than that they're both pretty bad about responding to security complaints. T-Online is notorious as a simultaneous source of scanning/exploit activity and a sink for abuse reports. AOL doesn't fare much better. Also, they'll probably end up keeping the brand name AOL since most of their customers could be easily confused by that sort of switch (most still don't know that Voicestream got bought by T-Mobile). So the sum effect of this would be that another company gets owned by Deutsche Telekom. Works for me: when I tell friends who really owns T-Mobile, more than one has decided they'd like to go with a domestic provider, even if it's not my employer.

    My real question is, will Catherine Zeta Jones be in the new commercials? :)

    --

    "You can never have too many elephants on your team."

    1. Re:Not a big effect by markhb · · Score: 2, Funny

      I might actually consider adding an AOL account if it came with a soundbite of Catherine Z-J saying "You've Got Mail"!

      --
      Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
  20. The Register got the story (short).... by DerOle · · Score: 4, Informative

    .. in English. See it here

  21. Deutschland uber alles! by swb · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, something I'd never thought I'd see on Slashdot -- shilling for the krauts!

    Go get 'em, Werner! Raus! Raus! Mach Schnell!

    Q: Why are French roads lined with trees?

    A: So the German army can match in the shade!

  22. Obligatory Simpsons Quote by onthefenceman · · Score: 2, Funny

    BURNS: Ooooh! The Germans are mad at me! I'm so scared, the Germans! Oh the Germansare coming after me...

    GERMANS: ...Stop it, Mr. Burns!...

    --
    Have you seen my stapler?
  23. D.Telekom CEO denies T-Online in talks on AOL by saddino · · Score: 4, Informative

    So it appears we have an official denial now (as reported by Forbes this morning).

  24. Oh, this should be good.... by KC7GR · · Score: 2, Interesting

    T-Online has a big problem with spammer infestations and mucho compromised broadband-connected systems being (ab)used as spammer zombies. I've got large chunks of their IP space blocked locally because of these issues, mostly T-Dialin.net.

    In contrast, though I may think AOL is nothing more than training wheels for the real Internet, I see maybe one or two spams a year from them, and the moron responsible quickly disappears once a report is made to AOL abuse.

    Given these two obviously contrasting views, I think a buyout is going to be most interesting to watch. I wonder if Steve Case has taught himself German yet?

    --

    Bruce Lane, KC7GR,

    Blue Feather Technologies

  25. Blame babblefish by mackman · · Score: 3, Funny

    The actually story says T-Online is going to buy an AOL account. The 1 billion dollar price tag is a little steep, but that's what happens if you go over your 10,000 free hours in the first month.

  26. Message from Steve by AndyMouse+GoHard · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hi, this is Steve. Why don't you just stop and leave me alone? Is there no end to your torment?

    --
    Upon seeing the box was too small, Schrodinger's Elephant breathed a sigh of relief.
  27. Write to your congress critter to stop this! by Zhe+Mappel · · Score: 3, Funny
    Tell your representative that we need a bill to keep America Online...American!

    Tell him or her that you don't want to see any further loss of American jobs in important sectors of the economy -- like producing endlessly wasteful sign-up CD-ROMs, policing the speech of adults as if they were children, and shoveling load after load of unwanted ads down the throat of miserable subscribers!

    (P.S. Dear Germans: would you mind buying Microsoft, too?)

  28. AOL, from loss to loss by Animats · · Score: 2, Informative
    AOL lost money for six years and hid it with funny accounting until the SEC caught them. They were treating those giveaway AOL disks as a capital expense. Really.

    Now they're in decline. Why would anyone want to acquire them, except as a distressed company? Their "content"? Yeah, right.