NEWS ABOUT: AOL
AOL stories: 48 news briefs
Chicago Tribune Jun 26, 09 10:41 AM CDT
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TMZ left its more savory rivals in the dust yesterday, reporting Michael Jackson’s cardiac arrest and death before any other media outlet, the Chicago Tribune reports. The AOL gossip website reported Jackson’s death at 2:44 local time, less than 20 minutes after the singer expired. But many outlets were so leery of citing the paparazzi-fueled site that they instead credited the Los Angeles Times , which reported the story online at 2:51.
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Division to go public by year's end
Wall Street Journal May 28, 09 8:43 AM CDT
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Time Warner plans to to shed its AOL division by the end of the year, the company said today, spinning it off into a publicly traded firm, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many predicted the move when Time Warner tapped Google ad exec Tim Armstrong as AOL’s CEO, and amended its debt agreements to make the move possible.
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Associated Press Mar 12, 09 6:27 PM CDT
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AOL is getting a new CEO. Tim Armstrong, a senior vice president at Google, will replace Randy Falco, who took the job in late 2006. Falco is leaving along with president and COO Ron Grant. The shakeup could mean that a Time Warner spin-off of AOL is more likely. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said Armstrong would be "helpful in helping Time Warner determine the optimal structure for AOL."
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Conglomerate takes $25 writedown as publishing, Net assets cheapen
Bloomberg Feb 4, 09 6:18 AM CST
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Time Warner reported a shattering fourth-quarter loss of $16 billion, prompted by plunging ad sales and a $25 billion goodwill writedown to reflect the decline in cable, publishing, and Internet assets, Bloomberg reports. While the media conglomerate took a hit from plummeting revenue at AOL and its magazines, rising revenue from cable systems and TV networks softened the blow.
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Networking site may be on block for $200M
year after $850M sale
TechCrunch Jan 27, 09 3:56 PM CST
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Less than a year after shelling out $850 million to acquire Bebo, AOL is looking to sell, sources tell TechCruch—though both AOL and the social-networking site are denying it. Bebo, with underwhelming numbers and buffeted by the spiraling economy, could go for $200 million.
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$30B difficult to raise amid recession
Wall Street Journal Dec 2, 08 2:08 PM CST
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After months of advising both Microsoft and Yahoo on a failed deal, former AOL chief Jonathan Miller is trying to put together a bid for Yahoo himself. The venture capitalist is asking private investors to help him amass the $30 billion needed to acquire the struggling, $10-a-share search engine group, down $20 since February, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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GOP candidate still dominates web searches
Politico Nov 29, 08 12:05 PM CST
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We just can't seem to let Sarah Palin go. Nearly a month after the election, she continues to dominate user lookups on search engines, cable news sites, and YouTube, reports Politico. Alaska's governor ranks near the top of virtually every major search tool, including Yahoo, AOL, and Lycos, where she dominated the incoming president until just last week. “People are still searching for her in record numbers,” said a Lycos spokeswoman. “How bizarre is that?"
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ANALYSIS
Blogging, page-hosting features latest to go as parent Time Warner looks for answers
Silicon Alley Insider Oct 1, 08 5:00 PM CDT
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AOL is cutting two more of its website’s offerings, a blog creator and a data hosting service, Peter Kafka notes on Silicon Alley Insider. Users of AOL Journals, which hosts blogs, will be migrated to an equivalent host. Users of AOL Hometown, which mainly store photos—and, Kafka sniffs, is “as anachronistic as a dial-up ISP”—received a stiffer message: Save it elsewhere.
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Time Warner anxious to decide on service's future
Financial Times (UK) Sep 24, 08 1:13 PM CDT
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A Yahoo board of directors now stocked with allies of activist investor Carl Icahn cleared the way yesterday for reigniting talks on combining with AOL, the Financial Times reports. Time Warner’s chief is eager to decide AOL’s future “fairly soon,” but is hoping Microsoft will join any deal. Icahn says Yahoo also has “to do something with Microsoft, or Google is going to kill them.”
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Gmail, Facebook will be accessible from firm's web portal
paidContent.org Sep 10, 08 1:50 PM CDT
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AOL is overhauling its portal page, incorporating third-party email services and social-networking sites into AOL.com, paidContent reports. The redesigned site allows users to perform global status updates, so a message sent from AOL would show up on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and more; users will also be able to view friends’ activity from multiple sites on an incorporated feed.
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PRODUCT REVIEW
Add more cowbell or find nearby restaurants
Wall Street Journal Jul 23, 08 2:22 PM CDT
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Impressed with Apple's spread of iPhone apps, Wall Street Journal tech gurus Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret list their favorites. AOL Radio: The best Internet radio player for the iPhone Evernote: A good port of the elegant note-taking program Instapaper: Instantly download Web pages for offline reading. Travelocity TravelTools: Allows you to check flight schedules, gate assignments, and security wait times.
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Software giant is seeking an alternative to Yahoo
Wall Street Journal Jul 16, 08 3:11 PM CDT
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Microsoft will sit down today with executives from Time Warner's AOL to explore a joint venture between the two companies, reports the Wall Street Journal. The software giant is looking for alternatives to its failed Yahoo buyout. Microsoft and Time Warner have been considering a deal for months, though no specifics have been ironed out. Yahoo, meanwhile, is pursuing its own talks with AOL as it fights off a hostile takeover attempt led by Carl Icahn.
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GADGETS
The new gadget supports AOL Radio's new app, for free
New York Times Jun 13, 08 9:00 PM CDT
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Apple’s new iPhone will provide free, CD-quality radio from 200 stations in 25 genres—even if that does cut into iTunes' music business, Saul Hansell blogs in the New York Times . But Apple knows that it will "fare best if it makes the iPhone as useful as possible, and that means exploiting the device’s ability to stream music, talk and video."
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analysis
Forget cash flow; think sale price
Wall Street Journal May 20, 08 10:08 AM CDT
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Yahoo needs to sell to Microsoft, or it’ll wind up a cautionary tale, writes Dennis Berman in the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo currently trades at 48 times earnings—for comparison, GE trades at 15 times earnings, and Google at 33, even though both are growing faster than Yahoo’s sad 9% rate. Lagging in growth isn’t a recipe for success: just ask AOL.
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Alleges they inflated revenue during merger with Time Warner
Wall Street Journal May 20, 08 9:42 AM CDT
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The Securities & Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against eight former AOL executives for allegedly inflating AOL's advertising revenues before its merger with Time Warner, the Wall Street Journal reports. The men are accused of giving firms money to buy ads on AOL that they didn't want or need in "round-trip' transactions.
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Analysis
Both companies scramble for options
BusinessWeek May 5, 08 12:56 PM CDT
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The Microsoft/Yahoo deal looks dead, and at least one company is celebrating: Google. Both companies are exploring other deals, but none will be as potent as MicroHoo might have been, BusinessWeek reports. That’s good news for a certain search giant. “Its two main competitors are separate and floundering,” said one analyst. “We think Google's the winner.”
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Analysis
Turning down Microsoft's sweetened bid may cost company in coming weeks
Reuters May 5, 08 6:17 AM CDT
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At least seven lawsuits already have been filed against Yahoo for its handling of Microsoft’s bid to acquire the Internet portal and lawyers say the company is likely to face more, reports Reuters. Microsoft withdrew a $33-per-share offer Saturday—a 70% premium above Yahoo’s share price three months ago when Microsoft launched its bid—after Yahoo demanded $37.
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Google deal risky, but analysts say company must prove its value
New York Times May 4, 08 5:24 PM CDT
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High-fives broke out at Yahoo yesterday after Microsoft revoked its buyout bid, but founder Jerry Yang and colleagues may want to hold off on celebrations, the New York Times reports. Analysts expect the stock to tank tomorrow, shareholders are mulling legal action, key workers may walk, and an alliance with Google could prove disastrous.
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Internet giant's transition to ad-driven firm picking up pace
Wall Street Journal Apr 25, 08 7:14 AM CDT
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It's been a while since AOL was associated with rising numbers, but a jump in traffic to its content sites shows the company's transition to an ad-supported business is on track, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company redesigned its news, sports, and health sites and created some new ones after its 2006 decision to make its service free.
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Better targeting, rates draw advertisers away from portals like AOL
New York Times Apr 21, 08 2:42 PM CDT
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Once, advertisers bought web ads the way they bought TV spots: by buying space on popular sites to increase brand visibility. Now the mentality has changed, the New York Times reports: Buyers want targeted buys that produce lots of clicks for their buck. Increasingly, that means they’re turning away from pricey portals like Yahoo to specialized ad networks.
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