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Time-Warner Planning AOL Split
Two years ago the word was AOL was planning a split from Time-Warner, because it was so successful. Now Time-Warner is considering a split of its own, deciding whether or not to separate the two 'halves' of the AOL pie. The split would see its 'access' ISP side made into an entity separate from its 'audience' side, consisting of portals, advertising and blogs. "[Time-Warner chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes] also said [AOL's] 84 percent ownership stake in Time Warner Cable is 'less than optimal' for both companies. He said the two companies are talking about operating improvements and changes to the ownership structure. The chief financial officer, John Martin, said it will take 'several more months' to separate the AOL businesses 'because it's fairly complicated.' The company expects AOL's advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2008 to be 'essentially flat to down slightly' versus the year-earlier quarter, he said."
Back when AOL and Time Warner merged, everyone except techies said they didn't understand, Time Warner was a fading dinosaur while AOL was a superstar. The techies said they didn't understand, AOL was a company heading inevitably towards failure--they just didn't have anything that anyone really needed to pay for.
Hasty marriages are bound for divorce
In Soviet Russia, everything runs linux.
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Time-Warner to merge with goatse, click here for details
...layoffs
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
AOL to Time-Warner: "It must have been something you assimilated..."
Really with AOL's dial-up business quite rightly going down the tubes (heheh) it does make perfect business sense to at least spin it off to die on it's own or as a bonus have some sucker buy it.
Shh.
Is it that AOL is doing bad? Because I haven't received any CDs from them in a while, so I'm getting worried..
You just got troll'd!
shrinking pie split in two, so that's even harder to sell, smart,...
Where's the "whattooksolong" tag?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
All the corporate hullabaloo, layoffs of low-level employees, rebranding and marketing that only lasted, what, a few years, and they plan to just hit Ctrl + Z on the whole thing?
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
... to hope for a Microsoft Yahoo! post-merger demerger? Only with Yahoo pocketing all the cash?
So, they're going to make two departments, one that's profitable and growing, and one that can be cut and eliminated in one year? Makes business sense to me. They call it "cutbacks"
"Teach a man to build a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."
Time Warner does.
And yes, it's Time Warner, not AOL Time Warner.
AOL has long been merely a division within Time Warner.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Hopefully google will sweep in and buy AOL and get a good price for it. I think that'd be an easy way to pick up a bunch of users who aren't so tech saavy while upping its marketshare in email and IM.
I hope they kill off the aol portal and AIM and replace them with something decent.
I know google's getting too big for its britches, but I also want to see them keep beating up MSFT. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, for now at least.
-G
It's wonderful! 2008 may be a great year! Both Yahoo and AOL may soon be no more.
Now if we can just find a way to rid ourselves of eBay, Real, Symantec and a few others...
... it's time to mail out some free dial-up CDs to increase market share. No wait, this is 2008: free Blu-Ray discs!
I wonder if this has anything to do with why DNS "not found" queries suddenly started directing me to a search/advert server run by RoadRunner.
That's some evil shit. If I were a phishing enterprise I'd be watching this closely. When your own ISP is pharming you, it's just a matter of time before something evil crawls out from under a rock and takes notice.
Maybe it was me calling up "www.fuckroadrunnerdnshijackingisevil.com" and a few dozen alternatives, or maybe it was portscanning their server, or maybe they just used caller ID to call up my account, but while I was on the phone complaining to them (I refused to give them my phone number or name), they suddenly turned off the service.
I think I'll be switching to DSL soon.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
And what, exactly is news about this?
This split has already happened in Europe. My company, for example, bought the access part of AOL Germany, and that was a year ago. It was always just a matter of time until the same thing would happen in the US.
And yes, there were layoffs. Mostly in the audience part, which fired about 75% of its people in two waves (one right after the split, one about three quarters later). The access part went well here, but I'm not sure about other countries. Some of the bidders, like us, were interested in the whole company, while other bidders quite openly stated that they only cared for the customers, and would've probably layed off everyone.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Goodbye
Army of Lamers
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
If they know the ISP business is going down the tubes, and the advertising/search part is fine, why are they spinning off one knowing it's going to die off. Why don't they just exit the business. Seems like a lot of extra corporate footwork for the same result.
I don't think AOL was a successful company in 2006... Or even 2003. Seemed to me like they were over about five or six years ago, when home DSL/cable connections became ubiquitous.
they'd move the access business to TWC's Roadrunner group which does the same thing more or less but over faster wires. They could consolidate call centers and support and save $$$. Then when they sell the rest of TWC shares to the public TWX can wash their hands of all the tech stuff and stick to selling crap to the unwitting public...
Even for paying customers who haven't signed up for them (signing up for them used to increase the web space allocation from 2 to 20 MB).
William
(who will have to install an ad-blocking script if AOL customer service won't reverse it for his account)
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Oh, sorry - this isn't the 90's ;-)
I knew they'd hate each other from the beginning. AOL is the scum of the earth and Time Warner's just greedy. Actually that goes together great but remember that story about how all the other scum of the internet doing illegal stuff hates each other and they all doublecross each other and all that. This is kinda the same thing lol. Now as soon as G4 lets what's left of TechTV go, all will be right with the world.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
...how how gullible (desperate) the market is. They couldn't try SCO's stunts with their own stock but they will have noticed that simply making noise pumps stock price. There's good money in it, if you don't eventually have to pay legal fees ;-)
I find it hard to believe that nobody in MS would allow this purchase to go ahead without pointing out that it's crazy - and probably impossible, legally. Therefore I cannot believe they are sincere about this plan.
MS can now spend a year reminding desperate traders about their grand plan.
Cleverest thing MS did: say that they would borrow most of the money for the purchase. If MS are borrowing money, then a company has enough faith in them - in the medium-to-long term - to lend it: an implied vote of confidence from a third party.