Slashdot Mirror
AOL to be Split into 4 Units
unsupported writes "AOL is apparently dividing into four units to provide a clear direction for each. The four divisions are as follows: Audience (Advertising, and AOL IM, Moviefon, Mapquest, Netscape.com), Access (dial-up, highspeed), AOL Europe (for the foreigners), and Digital Services (Premium services, phone and music subscription). "
They form the lamest robot in the entire universe... AOLtron!
...... and how is this news?
Seriously. AOL probably already operated this way anyway, so what's the big whoop?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I was so worried about their financial well being! I'm nearly out of coasters.
"AOL is apparently dividing into four units to provide a clear direction for each. The four divisions are as follows: Audience (Advertising, and AOL IM, Moviefon, Mapquest, Netscape.com), Access (dial-up, highspeed), AOL Europe (for the foreigners), and Digital Services (Premium services, phone and music subscription)."
None of which will regain profitability.
Does this mean I can get four times as many drink-coasters every month? I just moved into a bigger place, so I need some.
Seriously though, will this provide newfound independence for the Netscape folks, and newfound options for the browsers associated with them? Or will it just be a management shift that has no practical effect on the rest of the world?
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
The last thing AOL needs is a focused advertising unit.
AOL still has a few more years left in them. Cable and DSL haven't quite become ubiquitous, and there are enough people in the "heartland" who aren't familiar enough with the Internet to know better.
Their new commercials purport to make the Internet better - that's the market AOL has to reach, people who think their software is the Internet.
It doesn't have much longer, though. Education will put AOL to a slow death unless they drastically reform their business to revolve around the things they do get right (like messaging) instead of "access" and "customer support" (both in scare quotes for obvious reasons).
Maybe if you split the Time and the Warner parts off, you'd have even clearer direction, AOL?
Will cd-r manufacturers be able to keep up?
28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds... that is when the world will end.
AOL was marketed as an ISP for non technical people. This justified that added expense. Most families these days have at least one member who know at least a little bit about computing and sees that AOL is not needed. Its cheaper to get access from someone else and add the features you want. I suppose its because the internet has been around long enough for the general public (say 10 years of real viable public access?) so that either the adults have taken an interest or they have kids who know a great deal about it all. Seriously, AOL is just not worth the added expense. This new racket about including free anti-virus and spyware blocking is not going to change anything. Breaking into four main organisation is not the answer either. What they need to do is set their prices competitively and get some innovative content.
This sets the stage to spin the pieces off into separate companies, or to sell them.
I doubt AOL-TimeWarner has much AOL left once the "Baby AOLs" are operating a little more independently.
sigs, as if you care.
I'm suddenly imagining their little yellow logo guy being drawn and quartered....not pretty.. :-P
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
The Open Directory Project (ODP) at dmoz.org is the "largest human-edited directory in the world" and is "owned" by AOL since it came from Netscape ... although it's mostly community volunteers helping out, although AOL provides hardware and some staffing assistance.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
and its secret weapon is repeatedly firing fast rotating 30-day trial discs. OH THE HORROR!
My first thought at seeing the headline.
i thought printing & shipping CDs was their main task
EOL stands for "end of life", but that's what we'd all want, right?
Anyway, "AOL" is a brand name, an opaque identifier. European subscribers seem to associate "AOL" with a specific online service provider rather than with the words "America Online", just as they associate "DSL" with "high-speed Internet access provided over the phone line" rather than with the words "digital subscriber line".
Leelo Time-Warner Multipass!
Is AOL (Access) or AOL (Audience) sending me these CDs?
If YOU want to get rid of them send them to:
No More AOL CDs!
1601 Navellier St.
El Cerrito CA, 94530
U.S.A.
http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
Restructuring seems to be the way Boards of Directors justifies layoffs, blaming the placement of the "walls" for poor performance, rather than looking at lacking innovation, morale, and business savvy.
Besides the already-commented-about possibility of selling off parts, in this day and age the notion of dividing up divisions of a company differently just seems to fly in the face of the path of the enlightened employer of the 21st century.
By segmenting into distinct groups, you facilitate the blame game and hamper communication. This kind of restructuring certainly isn't what you do to revitalize.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
"In the days ahead, when our transition to a new structure has been completed, we will have a streamlined organization with clear roles and responsibilities"
In other words... "Well try this for a while to see if it works or now, I don't actually have a clue if it will or not". And in reality it is nothing more then a cover for...
"especially at a time like this when we have announced plans for layoffs."
In other words: "CEO bonus here I come!" And I can't leave out this jewel:
"giving each [unit] responsibility for its own operations and financial performance."
So you have developer x in group 1 and group 2 needs developers x skills, but they have to first put in a REQ and get financiall approval or even worse hiring a new person and meanwhile developer x sits around idly. I predict project slowdowns stock dropping and in 12 months a "New Plan".
-Benjamin Meyer
Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
Microsoft tried a related split up. However, they couldn't find a way seperate the Internet Explorer from Windows.
__
This was a lame attempt to be funny.
The 4 units will be named:
- Overcharging
- Limiting/Reducing Quality of Service
- Cancellation Deflection/Avoidance
- Demo CD Manufacturing and Distribution
Not to worry, they will all be guided by AOL's core mission: TO SUCK!
You didn't care enough to RTFA, but you cared enough to post telling us how much you don't care. Thus showing us how much you do care. You care enough to not care, but are very passionate about your not caring. You want us to care that you don't care. Or perhaps you want us to care how much you care that you don't care? Well, buddy, I just wanted you to know that I care about wheather you wanted us to care about you not caring or wanted us to care about you caring about not caring. And I hope that everyone else cares about me caring about you either wanting us to care about you not caring or wanting us to care about you caring about you not caring. Just thought I'd write this to let you all know I care.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Apparently prayer does work, as AOL has finally drawn and quartered itself.
Eventually, it will reduce itself to 64 small startup sized companies, 63 of which will fail. Just what I've always wanted to see: a living example of the DotCom bubble in reverse.
What's next? Maybe Microsoft will join them in self-dismemberment?
(Pray early, pray often...)
TLR
A man no more knows his destiny than a tea leaf knows the history of the East India Company
As if I wasn't getting enough free CD's in my mailbox, now I'll get four a day instead of simply 1.
Now That's progress.
Don't Crease the Weasel!
the folks at aol are going to have to face the reality that dialup is just not as relevant as it once was.
there are many ways to connect to the net and bypass their filtered system and filtered content.
their software cannot be controlled (it downloads updates on its own), their model is becoming obsolete, and their subscriber base has always been the un-net-educated.
as users become more sophisticated, they move away from aol because aol is incapable of providing that next step of service.
if tw/aol had any brains they would've combined the tw road runner service with aol from the get-go and then let you switch to earthlink or the other online companies.
by allowing broadband customers the ability to completely bypass the software and connect to the net, tw sealed aol's fate.
Is it 5:30 yet?
America Online Europe
(i know, i know, no one in Europe really needs to know what "A" in "AOL" stands for...)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
First consolidation was "IN". They gobbled up Time warner to become AOL-Time Warner. Then consolidation became "OUT" concept and they were spun off after being blamed for being the loss leader of the group. Now they are splitting into smaller pieces, to merge again in the future.. Story never changes. AOL is the same behemoth despite however many pieces you divide or adjoin it. It is just for a Wall Street only show. Nothing for you and me, the Joe/Jane the customer in it. We are not invited to see the play.
__________
The more I know people, the more I love animals
They do TOO know English. English is the ONLY common language of the Indian subcontinent! Unfortunately it is their own local varriation that is as difficult for an American to follow as is London Cockney. The fact that so MANY of those Americans used to have jobs that are now filled by folsk with Indian accents does not help either..
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Although restructuring is a ceo's task to cover someone else's butt or his(traditionally)
This may actually be beneficial to aol. AOL has always been the ISP for the internet newbie, and if the reorganization can help their broadband division actually give good services that are worth paying for, they may stick around.
As of now, their broadband and dial-up services have different aims, and you can not really keep those two together in the same division. AOL has got to step up and deliver a broadband service that gives something for the money you pay them.
They have started with the spyware removal and other neat things that work well for the busy family who does not have time to do that themselves. But they really need to seperate this service from their dial-up service. It is distinctly different in terms of scope. I looked it up because a friend of mine wanted to switch to broadband. He thought that AOL actually offered a broadband connection for $9.99 a month. After I told him what it did, he was still confused and couldn't figure out why someone would pay for that. Of course, he is a little ignorant of the net, but if he can not understand the need for this, a lot of potential user's out there also do not understand what AOL's broadband service is. This may be why AOL needs to seperate its two different services, because I have a feeling lots of ppl here also do not know what their broadband servoce is exactly. Maybe a seperate division will help distinguish what these two entities are exactly.
But in reality, I do not see the purpose of them dividing up into four seperate divisions instead of just the two. I guess this is what happens when corporate america has someone in their elitist circle that they need to protect from losing their 40 hour a week paid solitaire playing job. Or maybe four is the CEO's lucky number....
I've been around the whole dotcom phenomenon long enought to recognize this very typical tactic.
When a company divides into independent units, that means that they're prepping a division for sale or dismantlement.
Typically, you'll see a geographical component to the division, so that ties can be severed cleanly, and there's more of a financial gain (facilities expense goes away, HR effort to maintain the separate health insurance, legal climante, tax burden, etc. goes away).
The function of whichever unit goes, will be outsourced.
If you're an employee of one of these units, start looking for the danger signs.
Is the cost of living in your region higher than others?
Did the higher-up officers at your site relocate to some other site?
Do they remodel other sites, but not yours?
Do they fail to change the lightbulbs when they burn out?
Did they close your site's cafeteria?
Did they eliminate your onsite IT group in favor of "remote support"?
Do officers visit less and less frequently to share corporate news or policy?
Is there a hiring freeze at your location?
When was the last time you got a new desktop machine?
When was the last time you got training?
Does your site have a security presence 24x7?
Funniest bit is when they retag all the assets. Then in future years, you know your site is next when you get all the assets from the first site they shut down, with their old asset tags.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Bulletin: On instructions from the US Dept of Homeland Security, AOL has agreed to rename its AOL Europe unit. In accordance with Bush Administration Policy, the unit will now be known as EOL (for the foreigners).
See you on the game grid,
MCP
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
A newly appointed CEO has a conversation with the man he is replacing. The new guy asks, "what advice can you give me?". The old dog opens up a drawer and pulls out three envelopes.
"When you get into trouble the first time, open up letter number one and do what it tells you. When it happens again, use letter number two. And when it happens the third time, read letter number three."
With that, the old dog laughs and walks out the building.
A month later the new CEO is on the hotseat for missing the quarterly EPS mark. Right before the earnings conference call he reads letter number one - 'Blame me'. So the new CEO goes to the mike, blames the old CEO for bad management, and everyone walks away optimistic.
Three months later, the new CEO is on the hotseat again. He reads letter number two - 'Reorganize' So the new CEO tells everyone that the company is going to do a massive reorganization "to realign our business units with our core market paradigms.". The reporters grumble but accept the idea that the company is now on the right track.
Three months later, the new CEO is yet again facing major difficulties. He reads the last letter. 'Get three envelopes.'
*buhbumpbump*
n00Bs?
Oh wait. Never mind...
No, it's actually:
Conservatives & Liberals: F*cking the country today so our children can fix it tomorrow.
I really want a +1 Cynical mod right now