Time Warner Considering Demerging with AOL

Gracenotes writes "According to the Daily Telegraph, America Online CEO Jonathan Miller notes that AOL might be successful enough to break away from Time Warner and still remain in business. According to Miller, AOL is providing many online services, which provide competition against Google, Yahoo, and other rivals. Since its merger with Time Warner and plummet in value, such features have been increasingly emphasized."

Are they serious? AOL? Successful?

[thewldisntenuff]

AOL just cut 1400 jobs in Arizona and New Mexico. [cbsnews.com] Not only that, but in another interesting story - [itnews.com.au]

Internet service provider AOL's sales may shrink for the next two years as it gives away services to win more users and attract advertising, its chief executive said in an interview published on Saturday.

"Maybe another two years, you are right there," Jonathan Miller said when asked by German newspaper Die Welt whether sales would continue to fall. "But it's about profitability for us in this phase." ...

In recent weeks, AOL has sold its Internet access units in Germany, France and Britain for a total of almost US$2 billion as it reshapes itself into a free Web portal where popular email and entertainment services are supported by advertising.

The only, ONLY thing holding AOL still together are people who are less internet savvy and those who cling to AOL email addresses for their lives (certain professionals, businesspeople, et al). Creating a successful and large advertising group sounds like it'd be tricky in such a large market. Most people think of AOL the ISP or the portal than the advertising giant.

Finally, it should be noted that AOL spokesman John Buckley said "Time Warner ``is not considering a sale or demerger,'" [bloomberg.com]

Re:In some ways a victim of its own success

[Anonymous Coward]

The trouble is the vast majority of UK ISPs either apply rediculous download limits (30GB/month on a 16mbit line!) or utilise DPI traffic shaping methods on an 'unlimited' service (Tiscali for example). I pay for an internet connection not a web connection, and I don't expect to be throttled back to 10KB/s when I'm doing anything other then web browsing.

AOL are one of the very few (and shrinking) number of UK ISPs that offer a truly unlimited, reliable connection. (btw I don't use AOL, I'm just saying!) Maybe this will help them retain their market share? But as theyve been bought out by one of the worst ISPs in existance in the UK, I doubt it.

Re:Providing services?

[shmlco]

Forget that, what about "demerging"? I don't think that word means what they think it means...

demerge: \De*merge"\, v. t. [L. demergere.] To plunge down into; to sink; to immerse.

Re:have they tried calling AOL yet?

[clickclickdrone]

I had far better luck with AOL UK.
Me: I want to cancel my account
AOL: IS there a problem with the service?
Me: No, my pc died and I can't afford to fix it for some months.
AOL: OK, but if you come back in the next 6 months you can have your original account names still.
Me: Cool.
AOL: Ok, thanks for your call, bye.

Job done.

Re:Corporate speak

[Jekler]

The long run [wikipedia.org] is impossible to predict. Analysts never speculate about the "long run" because it is a time frame in which every factor of production is a variable, and therefore no accurate prediction can be made about it. You could say it's doubtful AOL can survive in the short run and perhaps be correct, but in the long run every factor about the business could change to the point AOL becomes a successful candy bar manufacturer.

Re:Providing services?

[Sam Ritchie]

The word 'demerger' is quite commonly used in business, in Australia at least. Verbing it appears to be valid as well, if you dig through the link below.

Demergers page on Australian Tax Office website [ato.gov.au]

Re:Hooray for AOL...

[Anonymous Coward]

As an AOL employee, I hope TW does spin-off AOL. Of course, after filling the management ranks with your fucking useless old guard media fuckos, I'm not sure it matters like it would have if this had never happened. Oh, and go fuck yourself, holier-than-thou TW prick. Look at the profit AOL generated to pay down TW debt you brought to the table. I think it was $18 billion in 2000. The money Google paid for a 5% stake? Swallowed whole by the TW "profit" machine. The only other part of the company that had a guaranteed profit was the cable company... a fucking monopoly. They should spin off AOL and split the rest of TWX up too.

AOL Buying TWX? Worst. Idea. Ever.

Re:Hooray for AOL...

[macserv]

As a fellow AOL employee, I wish I had mod points for you, sir.

I'm a member of our Local Search Products team, and I can assure every employee in a far-off branch of the company that AOL is far from dead weight. We make an assload of money with our web products, and our online advertising business is growing faster than anyone else's. Before you speak, check the balance sheet.