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October 2008
- Service Cuts Make AOL Even More Useless
  
  Silicon Alley Insider | Oct 1, 08 5:00 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
September 2008
- AOL Brings in Outside Help With Homepage Redesign
  
  paidContent.org | Sep 10, 08 1:50 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
July 2008
- Microsoft Meets With AOL to Explore Possible Deal
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jul 16, 08 3:11 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
May 2008
- SEC Charges Ex-AOL Execs With Fraud
  
  Wall Street Journal | May 20, 08 9:42 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
April 2008
- Traffic On the Rise at AOL's Content Sites
  
  Wall Street Journal | Apr 25, 08 7:14 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
- Ad Networks Gain in Race for Clicks Online
  
  New York Times | Apr 21, 08 2:42 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
- Yahoo, AOL May Merge; Murdoch-Microsoft In Talks
  
  Wall Street Journal | Apr 9, 08 10:34 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Two groundbreaking Internet deals are in the works, both related to Microsoft's desire to take over Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal reports. In one, Yahoo is considering combining its online operations with Time Warner's AOL. In the other, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is in talks to join Microsoft in its bid to acquire Yahoo. More »
March 2008
- AOL Goes Social, Buys Bebo
  
  Wall Street Journal | Mar 13, 08 1:46 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - AOL will buy Bebo.com for $850 million in an attempt to enter the social networking market, the Wall Street Journal reports. Bebo has 22 million unique visitors a month, well behind MySpace's 109 million, but the site’s strong European presence will give AOL access to key youth demographics outside the US. The move comes amidst reports of internal turmoil and a possible sale of the Time Warner subsidiary. More »
- As AOL Looks for Answers, Time Warner Hopes for Deal
  
  New York Times | Mar 12, 08 1:08 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - AOL’s efforts at launching an Internet ad-sales business—dubbed Platform A—continue to stumble, the New York Times reports. Parent Time Warner Monday fired another exec and yesterday said it’s willing to combine AOL with another company to jump-start the moribund division it’s already spent $1 billion on. Ex-AOLers say the one-time Internet giant is self-destructing. More »
February 2008
- You've Got No Mail: DC Techies Ponder Life After AOL
  
  Washington Post | Feb 18, 08 10:12 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - AOL is moving its HQ to New York, cutting nearly half of its 5,700 DC-area jobs, and leaving serious questions about the Washington, DC area’s tech industry in its wake. AOL’s declining fortunes have already hurt the sector, but local techies and VCs have fought back with numerous startups, reports the Washington Post . More »
- Time Warner Plans AOL Spin-Off
  
  Wall Street Journal | Feb 6, 08 11:44 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - In an effort to revive the company's slumping stock, Time Warner's new CEO plans to break up AOL, keeping its growing online ad properties, but unloading its increasingly obsolete dial-up Internet service provider. Operating income at AOL fell 70% in the fourth quarter, as the company continued to lose Internet-access customers, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »
December 2007
- AOL Pulls Plug on Netscape Browser
  
  CNET | Dec 28, 07 7:14 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - AOL today announced that it will discontinue support and development of its Netscape Navigator browser, a program that first introduced many to the Internet when it launched 13 years ago. But, CNET's Stephen Shankland writes, Microsoft's Internet Explorer ate into market share for Netscape, which was bought by AOL—which in turn spun off the Mozilla Foundation and its popular Firefox browser. More »
- Time Warner Focus Turns to Possible Breakup
  
  Bloomberg | Dec 28, 07 10:19 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - What do you do when you take over the world’s biggest media company? If you’re new Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, you probably sharpen some knives. Bewkes may soon spin off AOL as well as the conglomerate’s cable and magazine divisions, Bloomberg reports. “There’s nothing special necessarily about being the biggest,” argues one expert who manages 11.3 million Time Warner shares. More »
November 2007
- AOL to Buy Online Ad Outfit Quigo
  
  Reuters | Nov 7, 07 4:15 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - AOL will purchase online advertiser Quigo, its final acquisition on a major restructuring agenda. The Time Warner unit has had poor ad growth recently—13% this past quarter, down from 40% percent levels—and is seen as trying to stay competitive with Google and Yahoo. The purchase, reportedly valued at around $340 million, is the latest in a “buying frenzy,” Reuters reports—on the heel of Microsoft’s $6 billion buy of aQuantive. More »
- AOL Drags Time Warner Income Down 53%
  
  Wall Street Journal | Nov 7, 07 11:47 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Time Warner’s net income tumbled to $1.09 billion this quarter, compared to $2.32 billion a year earlier, thanks to a deeply underperforming AOL division, the Wall Street Journal reports. AOL last year dropped Internet-access fees, and with them 38% of its revenue, to focus on advertising. But the company expects already-low ad growth to slow next quarter, as search revenue declines. More »
October 2007
- Struggling AOL to Take 2,000 Jobs Offline
  
  Bloomberg | Oct 15, 07 1:22 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Internet icon AOL will pink slip 2,000 workers tomorrow—1,200 from the US—as the once-dominant service provider tries to re-energize its business. In August corporate parent Time-Warner announced that AOL had lost 1.1 million paying subscribers, and reported second-quarter sales of $1.3 billion, a 38% drop from a year ago. Last year, the company cut 5,000 jobs. More »
September 2007
- Security Firm: AIM Is Fatally Flawed
  
  PC World | Sep 26, 07 6:10 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Hackers could exploit a glitch in AOL's instant messaging program and take control of users' computers , a security firm reports. Core Security discovered that the way AIM uses HTML code provides a loophole for hijacking PCs, via a web link that implants a self-copying worm. AOL says it has solved the problem; Core claims the solution doesn't go far enough. More »
- AOL Packs for Move to NY
  
  Washington Post |

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Newser Specials

Stories

Service Cuts Make AOL Even More Useless

AOL Brings in Outside Help With Homepage Redesign

Microsoft Meets With AOL to Explore Possible Deal

SEC Charges Ex-AOL Execs With Fraud

Traffic On the Rise at AOL's Content Sites

Ad Networks Gain in Race for Clicks Online

Yahoo, AOL May Merge; Murdoch-Microsoft In Talks

AOL Goes Social, Buys Bebo

As AOL Looks for Answers, Time Warner Hopes for Deal

You've Got No Mail: DC Techies Ponder Life After AOL

Time Warner Plans AOL Spin-Off

AOL Pulls Plug on Netscape Browser

Time Warner Focus Turns to Possible Breakup

AOL to Buy Online Ad Outfit Quigo

AOL Drags Time Warner Income Down 53%

Struggling AOL to Take 2,000 Jobs Offline

Security Firm: AIM Is Fatally Flawed

AOL Packs for Move to NY