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."

funny

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.

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I once heard it being described as an old billionaire nabbing a young hot trophy wife, forgetting that the wife gets half the estate when there's a divorce, and gets progressively less hot as the years go on.

The only difference is that the billionaire will

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AOL was a company heading inevitably towards failure--they just didn't have anything that anyone really needed to pay for.

Really? Because when I read /. from that period (like here [slashdot.org] and here [slashdot.org]), it's all about doom-and-gloom, and AOL-TimeWarner will take ove

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I agree, and I think them trying to buy Yahoo is telling that Microsoft isn't doing so well. Microsoft lacks focus, and they want to take shortcuts. They look at Yahoo, figure they can buy up all that content, buy out a search competitor, and everything wi

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why do you think I want the Yahoo/MSFT deal to go through? MSFT wastes $45 billion dollars and another ~$5 billion trying to straighten out the mess. Even MSFT can't stand being crippled like that. It will take them a decade to recover.

GO MSFT!!!! Go Ya

Re:funny

branding and user base.

google had google video. youtube was crushing google video. google did not have a strong presence in video online and realized that internet inertia had hit - youtube was to video what google was to search. by buying youtube - they bought the branding and presence - a presence that is now lucrative because of the content deals, etc.

microsoft is not analogous to time warner. yahoo is not analogous to aol. yahoo has a strong web presence - this is undeniable. microsoft does not and cannot build a strong web presence (MSN gets good numbers but those are cheat numbers because of explorer defaults that most don't change) because it moves too slowly and it doesn't understand how to build a web BRAND. Unfortunately for Microsoft - recent evidence shows that younger execs - younger companies - have a better sense of building brands online. microsoft cannot do this - yahoo is not the answer. but this deal is not analogous to the AOL deal. At the time, it seemed sensible that the internet's premier portal get exclusive access to a huge library of content. Of course in retrospect it seems more sensible to strike deals with content companies so as to not cross-corrupt disparate corporate cultures - and i'm certain somewhere there are rules about the critical mass size of companies before they collapse under their own weight.

building a presence on the web requires core strength. google has search. not sure what yahoo's is, but they have stickiness. microsoft has NO online core strength. NONE. And it's 2008. their search is mediocre in most respects compared to google. they develop also/ran products long after internet phenomenons emerge - despite having the money to chase trends so aggressive so as to appear innovative even if they are not. Their online products do not differentiate on the basis of quality and/or branding. Finally, their inexorable ties to backward compatability - be it to old formats and or dying business models - it's like trying to sprint with a ball and chain. They have a problem.

they need to spin off a lightning quick young group - get the brightest young maverick engineers and call it microlabs or something. Let them build some crazy shit and see what pops up. this strategy here is for the fucking birds and IMO a waste of 40+ billion.

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How short people's memories are.

AOL bought Time Warner. The company name became AOL-Time Warner. Eventually the AOL portion was dropped but it doesn't change the fact that AOL bought Time Warner, not the other way around.

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The problem is that AOL (Yahoo) bought Time Warner (Microsoft), so that your thought that there is equivalence here is incorrect.

You've got ....

...layoffs

Merger not going well?

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 sucke

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AOL's been spinning off their dial-up stuff for years. In Europe, they sold everything in 2006, and have been doing the same in the U.S.. They are putting all their eggs in a basket called "ad revenue", which while being a bad bet in the long run, in my

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AOL's been spinning off their dial-up stuff for years. In Europe, they sold everything in 2006, and have been doing the same in the U.S.. They are putting all their eggs in a basket called "ad revenue", which while being a bad bet in the long run, in my b

I'm worried

Is it that AOL is doing bad? Because I haven't received any CDs from them in a while, so I'm getting worried..

Re:I'm worried

me too.

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Time-Warner Planning AOL Split
Posted by Zonk on Wednesday February 06, @01:09PM
from the seems-like-every-year dept.
Businesses America Online The Internet
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 [CC]. 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."

I'm woried (Score:5, Funny)
by 4D6963 (933028) Alter Relationship on Wednesday February 06, @01:27PM (#22323440) Homepage Journal

Is it that AOL is doing bad? Because I haven't received any CDs from them in a while, so I'm getting worried..
--
The ARSE 0.2d2 [sourceforge.net]. Sound -> Image -> New Sound.
[ Hide Replies | Reply to This ]

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Re:I'm worried (Score:1, Funny)
by SoupGuru (723634) Alter Relationship on Wednesday February 06, @01:41PM (#22323606)
me too.
--
**What doesn't kill you only prolongs the inevitable
[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Me too.
> On Wednesday 06, 01:41 PM, SoupGuru said
> me too.

me too!

me too!

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Oh, the good ol' days of AOL dial-up:

One sunny day, arrived in the mail,
500 free hours from AOL!
Twas looking for fun
But then for my gun
When the line busy and thus it failed.

shrinking pie split in two

shrinking pie split in two, so that's even harder to sell, smart,...

Missing Tag

Where's the "whattooksolong" tag?

Uneblievable

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?

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Not really. AOL is an asset owned by Time Warner Inc

I thought AOL was the one who purchased Time Warner, not the other way around.

Split

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"

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Dang, I thought it was a promotion when they told me I would run my own business unit.

AOL does NOT own Time Warner Cable

Time Warner does.

And yes, it's Time Warner, not AOL Time Warner.

AOL has long been merely a division within Time Warner.

Party time...

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...

Bolt your mailboxes ...

... it's time to mail out some free dial-up CDs to increase market share. No wait, this is 2008: free Blu-Ray discs!