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Microsoft Eyeing AOL?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the come-here-sweetie-and-give-daddy-a-kiss dept.

meriksen writes "This article on the CNN website suggests that Microsoft is looking to acquire AOL. What are the chances and do /. readers think this will ever happen?" The NY Post story is slightly more informative.

3 of 449 comments (clear)

  1. Google connection by BlueEar · · Score: 4, Informative

    A while ago Microsoft was considering purchasing Google. On the other hand AOL has right to buy nearly 2 million Google shares. If MS buys AOL then, by implication, MS has the same right ...

    --
    A religious war is an adult version of a fight over who has the best imaginary friend
  2. Time-Warner mismanages AOL by astrashe · · Score: 4, Informative

    A lot of people have been bashing AOL, and it's true that it's probably not a good choice for most /. readers. But they have a lot of features that are good for some pretty big niche markets (people with small kids, for example).

    I have a Time-Warner cable modem. Time-Warner has to let other ISPs use its cable lines, so when you sign up, you can take Time-Warner's Road-Runner, Earthlink, a local company, or AOL as your ISP.

    If you walk into the cable company office, you see tons of promotional material for Road Runner. They have cartoon road runners on posters all over the place, terminals in the office so you can see how fast it is, and all the rest.

    But there is no sign whatsoever that AOL is available. You have to know about it. I'm not even sure you can sign up for AOL at the office -- you might have to call AOL and get it set up.

    Whether or not you like AOL, it's a big brand, and a lot of people do like it. I think that if they had posters for AOL at the office, along side of the Road Runner stuff, they'd sell as many AOL accounts as Road Runner accounts.

    They don't, though. Why? Corporate infighting? Not wanting the other guys to look good? I don't know.

    The point is that AOL is an asset that Time-Warner, for whatever reasons, doesn't want to maximize. Someone else would do a better job.

  3. Re:Just imagine the hit to oss by muckdog · · Score: 4, Informative

    No No, Mozilla will be alive and well, first off Mozilla was an open source license. Second the Mozilla Foundation was created and AOL gave them a nice $2M gift to get started. They are are a separate legal entity. Mozilla is now independent of AOL. As for the future of xmms and winamp well who knows. However I think (IANAL) the "look" of winamp would be a trademark and not a copyright. If a trademark is not defended then you lose the trademark. Since xmms has been out for a few years now no worries.