Report: Time Warner may drop AOL

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Time Warner Inc. is looking at different options for America Online, including the possible sale, spin-off or reorganization of the Internet service provider, according to a published report.

The New York Post said the company's investment bankers at Goldman Sachs are putting together a proposal for the online unit to be considered at its April meeting. It said AOL chief Jonathan Miller is to present an update on AOL's business at that meeting.

A sale or spin off would essentially undo the 2001 purchase by America Online of media conglomerate Time Warner, whose units include cable television operations, movie studios, television and cable networks as well as magazines. Despite a 39 percent rise in the stock price over the last 12 months, the combined company is still worth two-thirds less than on the day the merger was completed. The name AOL was stripped out of the corporate name last year. CNN/Money is also a unit of Time Warner.

News source: CNN

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#1 paulhaskew on 17 Mar 2004 - 21:41

finally, corporate people are taking notice that AOL is not exactly the greatest thing in the world since sliced bread...

it only took how long?

(2 replies) #2 DrunkenMaster on 17 Mar 2004 - 22:03

A combined 39% stock jump huh? I wonder if it wasn't the intention of the executives to do this and sell AOL back for more money than its worth.

#2.1 bsarmir on 17 Mar 2004 - 22:39

You make it sound like they are making money off the sale.

#2.2 YaddaMe on 18 Mar 2004 - 06:26

QUOTE (#2.0)

A combined 39% stock jump huh?

Read the rest of the sentence... the 39% jump is over the past 12 months. Overall, since the TimeWarner/AOL merge, the company has lost about 2/3 of it's value. In otherwords, it's lost value (a lot), not gained it.

#3 netstarman on 17 Mar 2004 - 23:05

AOL needs to be gone they try to gain in profit but they are losing customers. More companys will provide better service, better quality , Ive been using the MSN 9 browser its great for my family but i use Mozilla firefox and Opera. There are better services than AOL.

(4 replies) #4 hotrod on 17 Mar 2004 - 23:09

i'm sure aol is loosing alot of money due to the ever-growing broadband market and people realizing they can get better internet service for less money. i'm actually surprised that aol hasn't tried to acquire any of the big telecoms.

#4.1 tapo on 18 Mar 2004 - 03:15

Time Warner Cable.

'nuff said.

#4.2 hotrod on 18 Mar 2004 - 03:18

i didn't say aquire large entertainment business did I? i said telecom, do you know the difference?

#4.3 noll3095 on 18 Mar 2004 - 05:22

They do own Roadrunner for broadband internet service. And ton's more stuff: http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/timewarner.asp

#4.4 hotrod on 18 Mar 2004 - 11:19

Roadrunner is a cable company right? that's not a major telecom company, I don't mean to argue this petty issue but i said MAJOR PHONE COMPANY, not cable provider..

(1 reply) #5 Bud on 17 Mar 2004 - 23:24

And so it came to pass that AOL will finally die and all the uninformed AOL uses will realize there are better ISPs out there.

Poetic Justice if you ask me.

#5.1 bsarmir on 18 Mar 2004 - 18:31

lol I agree, I always thought AOl was a bomb waiting to explode (Okay, hindsights 20/20). A friend of mine used to get free internet service through all the free AOL cds he was recieving. He never payed AOL a penny. Now he's on broadband, he's paying for it, and it's not AOL. Gotta love that.

#6 [Thrice] on 17 Mar 2004 - 23:29

lol nobody would buy aol if it was sold off..

#7 Toxikk on 17 Mar 2004 - 23:33

aol bought time warner in the first place.

it would be more like aol dropping them... but since its all members of the tw board...

#8 malebolgia on 17 Mar 2004 - 23:37

The one thing I'll give AOL is that they helped the internet adoption trend back then.

(5 replies) #9 derekge on 18 Mar 2004 - 01:13

I never realized what AOL was/provided/did to be so popular. They are a web browser, an ISP, and they provide email. Being anal about people being able to get in touch with me, I assume the latter was what people were really sticking around for. I'd hate to lose my hotmail email someday just as an old friend tries to get back in touch with me. The ISP and browser stuff is so trivial and why would I want to keep Mozilla Firefox if it constantly bugged that "I had mail" or jumped up with 10 pop-ups evertime I loaded it? I have never used AOL but one sniff tells me that somebody pooped their shorts.

#9.1 tapo on 18 Mar 2004 - 03:30

As a AOL user from 2.5 to 6.0, let me explain.

You see, back in the day, I had tried this whole "Internet thing" on my brand new Mac LC 575 and Supra Express 14.4 modem. I loaded up Compuserve, which was included, set up an account, and dialed in.

Compuserve was closed, unlike the open and actual web you see today. It was a screen, with a go menu. You'd type in a go keyword, it would get you to something like a shop, or an online bbs. You could read compuserve's news service and download low resolution pictures too.

Emailing people, like my Dad, was a pain in the ass. They gave you a string of numbers as an account number, and you could only email other compuserve users. My Dad signed up, and I could message him by punching in a number like 75543,27685 and then writing the email.

Eventually, after a few months, I decided to try AOL.

AOL was different. They had "channels", they had chat rooms, a username for an email address instead of a weird number. It even greeted you with a friendly "Welcome!". In version 2.6 you could use other apps with your AOL connection, and try out "The Web" and "Gopher". I never had enough RAM to run the AOL web browser though, so I never bothered with it.

But as open systems such as the web and normal email grew to be more popular, AOL's content became useless, just linking to things on the web.

AOL hasn't really gotten worse, but it only never changed. If you used it around '95, trust me, it was a LOT better then the competition.

#9.2 hotrod on 18 Mar 2004 - 03:38

basically what you are saying is (i started the EXACT same way on the web except with Prodigy) is that you fired up compuserve, hit the bbs, experience online porn for the first time, then emailed dad to tell him about it..

#9.3 tHeDoSe on 18 Mar 2004 - 03:41

rotflmao

#9.4 bsarmir on 18 Mar 2004 - 18:36

No Hotrod, I think that's what YOU did.

#9.5 derekge on 18 Mar 2004 - 22:27

Hotrod: that's the funniest thing I've read all day!

Tapo: thanks for the insight - I bet it was great back in the day. I also bet that email addresses like 'brian@aol.com" or "mike@aol.com" or even steve@hotmail/yahoo.com, etc... are like gold now!

#10 Matt500 on 18 Mar 2004 - 02:41

years back i installed aol and they charged me for time i didnt use . dam them lol

#11 oo420oo on 18 Mar 2004 - 04:12

AOL were in the right place at the right time during the 56k rush.

(2 replies) #12 NeoMayhem on 18 Mar 2004 - 04:31

If I was rich enough, I would buy AOL and shut them down, lol

I could have a huge party and burn corporate documents and servers

#12.1 YaddaMe on 18 Mar 2004 - 06:31

Dont burn a thing!!!!!!

There are so many anti-AOL people out there that you could easily sell that as memorabilia... a lot of people would pay for a souvenir that signified AOL's death. Heck, you may even make a profit...

#12.2 cork1958 on 18 Mar 2004 - 07:06

And with any amount of luck, that's the ONLY way AOHELL ever makes a profit again.

#13 Gary_Player on 18 Mar 2004 - 09:59

Anything that hurts AOL is good for the rest of us

(8 replies) #14 WS togermano on 18 Mar 2004 - 14:55

You people keep saying aol sucks. I have comcast and I use BRing ur own access on aol. I get high quallity streaming news videos and music videos. cd quallity online radio stations. Buddylist window research channel. And how many isp tell you when you get e-mail right when is it sent? if you have pop3 Usuually have to wait a few minutes unless you set the timings to like 10 seconds but that will pound the pop3 email servers. You might be able to do it with imap but most isps don't offer that. The only thing bad about aol it kinda cost to much but msn is only like 2 dollars cheaper and you get soo much less with msn. And that it uses alot of ram. But i mean look at it has alot of stuff in it. And alot of people who suck are cracking peoples passwords for some reason. Is it because they are to poor to afford aol and they want it? I dunno people are messed up.

#14.1 NPGMBR on 18 Mar 2004 - 15:58

Hey there guy, don't go beatin up on MSN. Just what the hell is it that AOL has that MSN doesn't? I left AOL 5 years ago and at the time MSN could not compete but MSN9 IMO (Is The *hit).

Have you even used the software?

This is what CNet has to say about AOL 9.0 Optimized and MSN Premium:

AOL 9.0 Optimized, Rated 8
"If you use AOL, you'll love this upgrade, and serious Web content junkies should give it a go; but MSN remains easier to use".

MSN Premium, Rated 7.5
"MSN 9.0 is still the easiest dial-up ISP to use, and MSN Premium is a smart choice for broadband users who lack firewall, antivirus, and personal finance software".

#14.2 WS togermano on 18 Mar 2004 - 17:37

opinions don't matter

#14.3 NPGMBR on 18 Mar 2004 - 18:06

But its ok for you to make your opinion "you get so much less with msn"?

FACT - Everything you mentioned in your first post that AOL offers you, MSN offers the same to me.

FACT - Yesterday AOL announced that it was to start offering an online Bill Pay service for its members. Wow ........., MSN and Yahoo! have been offering that to their members for over a year now.

These are FACTS not Opinions.

#14.4 WS togermano on 19 Mar 2004 - 00:27

AOL has soo much more then msn

#14.5 NPGMBR on 19 Mar 2004 - 12:35

Please enlighen me and list those things that AOL offers that MSN does not.

#14.6 WS togermano on 19 Mar 2004 - 15:11

msn doesn't offer aol9.0 optimized

#14.7 NPGMBR on 19 Mar 2004 - 15:33

LOL I have to admit you almost got me on that one but by using that logic I have to tell you that you are wrong.

If I wanted to get aol9.0 optimized via my MSN Premium browser all I'd have to do is type aol.com into the address bar, and BAM! I got it.

#14.8 NPGMBR on 19 Mar 2004 - 16:11

Ya know, if the things that are spoken about in the link below happen, it won't matter because your beloved AOL will be assimilated.

http://www.nypost.com/business/17300.htm

Last edited by 14565 on 19 Mar 2004 - 16:23

#15 Grappa on 18 Mar 2004 - 14:56

Yawn. All that would happen if AOL went away is the n00bs would go somewhere else. Then you'd be bitching about that service.

#16 rogerroger on 18 Mar 2004 - 19:47

I just want to add my voice to the other 18,000 saying AOL SUX.

#17 enigma429ad on 19 Mar 2004 - 07:26

i think you people are over looking what really matters here.

SLINGO?

no AOL would mean no Slingo. and that would suck.

#18 Da22in on 19 Mar 2004 - 15:29

AOL offers nothing that can't be had elsewhere. They spoon-feed the Internet to their members. TW's AOL acquistition was a poor decision, and the sooner they sh*tcan this washed up service the better. AOL was cool right up until they went from $3 per hour to 19.95 flat monthly rate several-everal years ago. They've sucked every day since.

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