Time Warner is Looking to Spin off AOL

[The Canadian]

Business schools around the world often study the January 2000 merger of Time Warner & AOL under the headline ?Worst Mergers In American Corporate History?. It is not unusual, or unnatural for content creation companies to enter the distribution market, but AOL and magazine publishing arm Time Inc. have dogged their parent companies earnings for years now. Looking to cut its losses, Time Warner announced on Wednesday that it was closespinning off America Online, an acquisition that has cost the company more than $100 billion in shareholder value.

According to the filing; ?Although the company?s board of directors has not made any decision, the company currently anticipates that it would initiate a process to spin off one or more parts of the businesses of AOL to Time Warner?s stockholders, in one or a series of transactions.? When asked about the future of Time Warner, CEO Jeffery L. Bewkes claims the future ?may well include publishing? but made it clear that this could change at any time. The company is likely holding out on making any decisions about Time Inc. until the recession eases and it can see if weakening print sales are a result of the recession, or the shift of its readers to online mediums.

Time Warner has already spun off it's cable division, and is clearly looking to focus on content creation, rather than delivery. I also can't help but wonder whether or not an independent AOL acquisition target for Microsoftrosoft[/url]. The ad network was one of the primary drivers behind the Yahoo talks, and this is one area that AOL still does reasonably well in.

Can AOL survive on it's own? Let us know what you think.

Source: Maximum PC

[thealexweb]

Why spin it off when Microsoft would almost defiantly snap it up if it was put up for sale.

Edit: Finished reading article, never mind.

[Growled Member]

One can hope they die the swift death they so richly deserve. :p

[(Spork)]

One can hope they die the swift death they so richly deserve. :p

QFT

AOL is CRAP

[cabron]

One can hope they die the swift death they so richly deserve. :p

I could not agree more, I just remember how these greedy ******* of AOL make my life in pain 7 years ago when I was trying to quit their services.

[sweetsam]

AOL can not survive on its own unless they decide to rename themselves and review their policies which has successfully managed to **** off many customers. Its as simple as that.

[coresx]

I imagine quite a few smiles when people read the end of AOL.

[ATLien_0]

AOL is no good anymore. AOL was designed for the dial up days, but now you really don't need it. AOL revolutionized the dial up age if they want to survive they are going to have to change