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Microsoft to Buy Stake in AOL
NetDanzr writes "According to various sources (Bloomberg, Reuters, CNet), Microsoft is in talks with Time Warner to buy a stake in AOL. While the size of the stake or its prize has not been disclosed yet, Bloomberg speculates that this deal would profit both companies. Microsoft would profit from merging the AOL portal with MSN, as a strategy to catch up with his rivals in this space Yahoo and Google, while Time Warner would gain some ammunition in its fight with a renegade shareholder, Carl Icahn. According to CNBC, AOL is just about to turn the corner and is currently the most undervalued division of Time Warner."
Why wouldn't a statement come from CNBC declaring this to be a good purchase? It is from such an unbiased source after all.
This is the single most terrifying news I've heard all week. I'd almost... no, I WOULD prefer an asteroid the size of Texas hurdling at the Earth.
Just when you thought the world was safe, evil and evil unite. Been nice knowing you guys. I'm off to read "revelations" to see what's about to go down.
Does this mark the end of netscape???
Two great things that... uhh... nevermind.
More probably, buying into AOL is a good way for Microsoft to ensure that AOL never abandons IE for Mozilla...
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Sperry Univac merged with Burroughs at the end of the mainframe era and how that merger turned the mainframe business around ???
Is this an example of two wrongs not making a right?
are you guys going to make some jokes about this?
this is no joke.
hotmail was good, and it was popular.
MS took it over and turned it into the most worst email (the low storage, the spam, the restrictions, etc) service ever. nevertheless, people keep using it because it's what they always used or what their friends use.
now take AOL, something already crappy. i can't possibly imagine what microsoft can do it. maybe this time around people will actually shy away to something else.
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
Sure, now we're going to be innundated with Windows CD's offering 1000 hours of Windows free with your credit card.
Finally putting the two largest scum of the earth together!!
SCO's involved in this?
I do not see how MS buying AOL stock is going to change ANYTHING at all in the Mozilla Foundation.
They are self-sufficient, independent and have been since at least the start of FireFox.
I think there are more programmers working in google then in AOL.
The moment the new combined AOL/MSN portal goes online, it will generate a vortex of suck large enough to consume the entire solar system, leaving nothing behind but a cloud of waveforms and probabilities.
Technoli
So when will Gates announce that AOL is "part of the operating system"?
[Insert pithy quote here]
Oracle buys Siebel.
eBay buys Skype.
Ballmer: (to Bill via bad cell phone connection) Billy-boy, what are we going to do? They're getting more press than us this week.
Gates: Eh? Oh hell! ( as he spills his coffee on his lap and hangs up)
Ballmer: Well, ok if you say so.
Insightful? AOL divested of its contribution to Netscape a couple of years ago. While they still put out a netscape product based on mozilla they are no where near the main contributor to mozilla. Most of the main developers have long since moved on.
Microsoft sees its future in the media distribution/licencing business - hence so much R&D of their proprietary secured codecs for audio and video.
AOL is presently owned by Time Warner
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
How about A/S/L, MON?
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
Microsoft isn't satisfied with the worst portal in the world. Now they want to buy the 2nd worst to guarantee their position.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
There is a huge chunk of the online population in the U.S., perhaps most of it, for whom computers are a tool, like a hammer or a radio. They never bother to investigate what else you can do with a hammer besides tack up a picture, nor ever realize that there is more to a radio than "FM 104.3 - your home for today's Country and all time favorites".
For those folks, the Internet is either the little blue "e" or it's AOL. They don't have broadband, but they want it because the marketing geniuses at AOL have been telling them that AOL for broadband is better.
There is another set of users, mostly teenagers, who use either AIM or MSN Messenger to send messages back and forth to their friends' cell phones all day long. It's like passing notes in class, but they do it before breakfast, during breakfast, in the car, between or in classes, and so on. They do homework over it.
The teenagers don't know or care, for the most part, that there are dozens of IM clients and that they all pretty much work. They have MSN or AIM and that's all they need.
A portion of both groups discover eventually that the world is bigger than their little corner of it, but, like programmers using vi to edit CSS, they stick with their original chat and web clients even knowing that there are better alternatives.
I suspect that Microsoft and AOL has some synergy in that environment.
sigs, as if you care.
Probably a nice investment for MS if they can combine their msn messenger users with AOL's instant messenger users. Would be quite dominant, and who knows the services they will think of to generate money from that. I have read countless articles about younger people not using emails these days, and using just instant messaging, noticed this specifically when I travelled to Korea this summer.
Caller: Hi. I have MSN and my AOL account doesn't work. In fact nothing works.
Banglaore Tech: And sir did you turn the computer on sir?
Caller: Oh. right.
Bangalore Tech: Very good sir. Now kindly go fuck yourself sir. Thank you for calling MSN/AOL tech support, you knuckle dragging imperialist asswipe sir.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Sure, now we're going to be innundated with Windows CD's offering 1000 hours of Windows free with your credit card.
This sounds like something that could be used as a deterent to crime.
Judge: "You are hereby sentanced 1000 hours of Windows"
Defendent: "Nooooooooooooooo!"
Probably wouldn't work though. We have restrictions on cruel and unusual punishment. Windows isn't unusual, but it certainly is cruel.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Dude...you just said most worst...incredible...
sorry, proper english can't describe what MS did.
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
So here's the anagrams for AOL and MSN...
MAL ONS - MAL SON - LAM ONS
LAM SON - SALMON - ALMS NO
ALMS ON - SLAM NO - SLAM ON
MA SOLN - AM SOLN - MAN LOS
MAN SOL - MANS LO
"Salmon" has more logo possibilities;
"Slam On!" will appeal to the x-treme and H4x0r crowd,
but "Man, S.O.L.!" is probably closer to what most people think of this development.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Can you imagine bootinh windows into the dulcet tones of the AOL Bot saying, "You got Mail?"
Or AOL with the new and improved advanced Clippy the speaking paperclip help technology?
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Hey, I'm glad to hear about this. Kudos to Microsoft for helping unify disparate litigious and malefactious corporate bodies into a single, easier to target entity. Up next: Microsoft to merge with SCO, Haliburton, Monsanto, and the Carlyle Group; to relocate headquarters to the vibrant financial district of Dis.
You look beautiful! Incidentally, my favorite artist is Picasso.