Time Warner to split off AOL

[47of74]

Source: CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Time Warner unveiled plans Thursday to spin off AOL as an independent company, an end to the massive media marriage formed in January 2001.

"We believe that a separation will be the best outcome for both Time Warner and AOL," said Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes, in a prepared statement.

The $100 billion merger between AOL and Time Warner was applauded at the time as a visionary attempt to meld old media with new media. But synergies between the two never materialized.

Times Warner's (TWX, Fortune 500) stock has plunged about 80% since the merger. The company's stock closed at $23 per share on Wednesday, down from $115.13 on Jan. 10, 2001, adjusted for splits and dividends.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/28/technology/timewarner_aol/index.htm

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I wonder how long AOL will be along after the Time Warner splitsville?

[NV Whino]

1. They'd be better off to bury it.

[Egnever]

2. Yay! finally AOL can die the death it has deserved for so long.

Time warner should have backed out of that deal the second the ruling came down that they couldn't use their cable exclusively for aol in the first place. It was an attempt at creating a monopoly in the first place and without that monopoly the deal made no sense.

I will dance a little happy dance the day that POS AOL goes down once and for all.

[Winterblues]

3. A lot of people were introduced to the Internets because of AOL.

I was delighted to be rid of it but it sure gave me easy access at the time..

[Egnever]

5. True

A lot of people experienced computer problems they never would have as well because of it. Still do.

It has always been designed first to trap you into never leaving, second to advertise to you, and last to make it an easy to use service.

[sofa king]

4. "But synergies between the two never materialized."

What? The hundred billion dollar marketing fluff was just fluff?

I've had the good fortune to meet two AOL millionaires, regular joes who bought up all the stock they could as employees, then sold out and retired. Neither one of them had a dime in the post-merger operation.

[notadmblnd]

6. AOL is a dinosaur and it's only benefit that I can see is to beginners

on the internet. There's not too many of those left, so yeah, I think AOL will become extinct in the next few years.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Ay Oh What?

Are these letters meant to signify something?

:rofl:

[StrongBad]

8. In hindsight, this was a terrible merger.

People should have seen that AOL would become an internet dinosaur within a decade.