Geek Tested:

Time Warner is Looking to Spin off AOL – Can it Survive on its Own?

Posted 05/03/09 at 12:26:26 AM by Justin Kerr

AOL

Business schools around the world often study the January 2000 merger of Time Warner & AOL under the headline “Worst Mergers In American Corporate History”. It is not unusual, or unnatural for content creation companies to enter the distribution market, but AOL and magazine publishing arm Time Inc. have dogged their parent companies earnings for years now. Looking to cut its losses, Time Warner announced on Wednesday that it was close to spinning off America Online, an acquisition that has cost the company more than $100 billion in shareholder value.

According to the filing; “Although the company’s board of directors has not made any decision, the company currently anticipates that it would initiate a process to spin off one or more parts of the businesses of AOL to Time Warner’s stockholders, in one or a series of transactions.” When asked about the future of Time Warner, CEO Jeffery L. Bewkes claims the future “may well include publishing” but made it clear that this could change at any time. The company is likely holding out on making any decisions about Time Inc. until the recession eases and it can see if weakening print sales are a result of the recession, or the shift of its readers to online mediums.

Time Warner has already spun off it's cable division, and is clearly looking to focus on content creation, rather than delivery. I also can't help but wonder whether or not an independent AOL would become an acquisition target for Microsoft. The ad network was one of the primary drivers behind the Yahoo talks, and this is one area that AOL still does reasonably well in.

Can AOL survive on it's own? Let us know what you think.

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elektrik
Submitted by WEB TASARIM on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 6:02am

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HEY
Submitted by jihnn on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 10:15am

who remembers all those baskets of aol cd's, then there was the mailings those things were all over the place

free free free free

all you had to do was give it a try

brings a tear to my eye kinda like the death of the american dream

free free free 2 million minutes free try it now

free minutes must be used within the 7 day trial period

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Hey those CD's will be worth
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 11:38am

Hey those CD's will be worth something in about 200 years. You didn't take the cd's out of their sheaths did you? because that will lower their value.

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AOL? Oh, I remember them!
Submitted by the_river on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 6:24pm

I wasn't aware they were still alive. :) Ok just kidding. But seriously, I really wasn't aware of anything else they did shy of being included in front of movie credits as 'An AOL Time Warner Company' logo.

THEY TRULY WERE DEAD long ago. I think the only thing they got going for them is AIM, in which I refuse to use after a virus upset my 'groove'. Now it's Trillian and nothing else. That was four years ago. Who ever uses AOL? I mean I caught my step dad still paying for it for just the email address he got!! I was like, 'Phil, seriously. You got a Verizon email address and now you have moved and got Comcast. Now you have a new Comcast address. It is time to let it go." And thus he learned why he has an IT step son and how to use him. Saved that man $25 a month and set him up with an email client.

Maybe that's it. The older generation doesn't know about GMAIL, Yahoo, and all the other free services, let alone that their IP provides like at least one email address. Verizon gives you nine incase you got a big family, Comcast at last count gives you five I think. I think AOL can die now and go do something else. Hearing it's name makes me think of the old days when my family had a PowerMacintosh (you remember the one) with an external modem and AOL gave you 500 free minutes for joining! Ok...so it'll take me five minutes to connect, then take 30-120 seconds to load pages. Oh gee. Thank the tech god for modern broadband.

America is online already...bye bye AOL.

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Die AOL
Submitted by MeTo on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 9:01am

I fired AOL a long time ago. AOL by far was my "WORST" internet experience ever. Super slow dialup and they cramed to much on a home page You could watch as the page drew section by section. And constant disconects. When I got DSL they said i could keep AOL for free I said I don't want anything to do with AOL period cancle my account.

Linux Mint,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.

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Your
Submitted by WEB TASARIM on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 6:31am

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Malware/SPAM Beware.
Submitted by MeTo on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 12:45pm

Malware/SPAM Beware.

Linux Mint,AMD Athlon+ x2 5600,3 Gig ram,500 Gig HDD,ATI 1300 Video.

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AOL
Submitted by bloodyserb on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 5:52am

I encounter their customer base regularly in my line of work, and while they are unflappably

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loyal, they are also unquestionably senior citizens. They won't give up on AOL willingly, but time it against them.

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AOL was dead long ago
Submitted by vistageek on Sat, 05/02/2009 - 10:58pm

AOL died off long ago, like back in the 1920's when the generation of people that used it died off. I am glad that any remaining rumer of AOL may have the chance to die off now too.

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