AOL, Time Warner Announce Divorce
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: aol, time, warner, divorce, separation | Themes: Business
After ten long years, AOL and Time Warner are saying farewell and splitting up.
TW today announced via press release (available here) that its Board of Directors had given management the thumbs up to proceed with plans for a complete legal and structural separation of AOL from Time Warner, adding that following the transaction AOL will independent, publicly traded company.
As it stands, Google owns 5 percent of AOL, which Time Warner plans to buy back in Q3 of this year. Once Google is out of the picture and once AOL is successfully separated, Time Warner shareholders will own all of the outstanding interests in AOL.
While the press release contains next to no information as to what kind of state this will leave AOL in, source told Kara Swisher over at All Things D that there are massive changes in store for the company, including putting Bebo, the company’s social networking site, and many other recently acquired companies in a separate ventures unit which will try to attract outside investment.
AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong is remaining pretty upbeat about the whole thing. “This will be a great opportunity for AOL, our employees and our partners,” Armstrong said in a statement.
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Do some research in to whether or not TW is still moving forward with their consumption based billing as I type this right now. I had an employee tell me that they are still testing it right now even though they had backlash from customers. He said he couldn't see why they would still be attempting it but, they are, his words.
Time Warner is transferring all non-layoff-able personal to AOL so when AOL folded, Time Warner won't be blamed.
both companyies suck.
The other day I heard a commercial from Time Warner Cable trashing Verizon and their internet technical support, claiming that you can only get them from 8-4, M-F, but TWC is available until late evening.
"Who cares?," I thought. "You still suck. Bite me. Take your consumption based billing and shove it."
Whew. That felt good.
Both companies suck, they belong together.
Did the merger of these two companies ever make sense to anyone?
The other day I heard a commercial from Time Warner Cable trashing Verizon and their internet technical support, claiming that you can only get them from 8-4, M-F, but TWC is available until late evening."Who cares?," I thought. "You still suck. Bite me. Take your consumption based billing and shove it."Whew. That felt good.
Got that right. Wether I call between 8-4 M-F or later it is still the same standard of service. Which most of the time is none.
Does anyone really care about AOL anymore ... the only thing I use that has any connection to AOL is AIM to talk to American friends that I know. That's really it ... oh and for iChat. Other than that AOL is basically supplanted with other companies like Google.
I wish this would mean that Time Warner gets to keep Winamp.
Did the merger of these two companies ever make sense to anyone?
yes, the stockholders of AOL (at the time) that made a killing of it
other then that....will go down as one of the dumbest business moves since new coke...or blockbuster attempting to purchase circuit city
Both companies suck, they belong together.
Hear hear!
AOL is good because of the purchase and purchase and when they work
There was a very interesting book written by some prominent journalists, shortly after the merger,"Fools Rush In."
The major force at work was an egocentric CEO, who was about to retire, desperate to leave a grand legacy for himself. He was not about to let any sane minds rain on his great fairwell parade.
Everytime I hear AOL in the news, I find myself suprised that company still exists. I guess I still use their AIM service, but even with that, I switched from AIM program to using Pidgin because it is a much smaller, lighter, and faster IM program. I made the switch after I read an interesting article which pointed out the spyware inside of AIM.
Why exactly did they combine in the first place? It always seemed like a stupid move to me. Now apparently their executives have seen the light too.
It must be hard being married to AOL. All your friends and colleagues laughing at you behind your back...
It must be hard being married to AOL. All your friends and colleagues laughing at you behind your back...
Behind your back? No... it was pretty open and in-your-face. I remember for YEARS in netnews the standard response for a dumb post in an NNTP group was, "I was going to yell at your level of non-understanding, but then then I saw you posted from aol.com. Sorry."
AOL still means Army of Lamers.
TimeWarner recognized their tech 'support' decline was the result of inbreeding
RoadRunner infrastructure is BROKEN in california... this divorce opens them up to troll for a rich mate to line their pockets, not0fix the problem, and continue taking on new customers