Wednesday, February 06, 2008

AOL to Spin Off of TW

"For the year, AOL's revenue slid to $5.18 billion, vs. $7.79 billion in 2006. The results were due to a 52% slide in subscription revenue, though advertising revenue gained 18%. The company last year sold its Internet access business in the U.K., Germany and France, contributing to the decline, and saw domestic revenue decrease as it offered email and other products to consumers for free." [source]

"AOL reported operating income of $274 million on revenue of $1.25 billion. That’s down from operating income of $910 million on revenue of $1.84 billion. ... Nevertheless, it is still amazing that AOL still has 9.3 million access subscribers. Who are these people? And why are they paying for what they could get for free?" [zdnet]

"Time Warner will separate the AOL access and advertising businesses. That needs to happen anyway. We need to judge AOL on the advertising business and Time Warner needs to sell its access business. The problem: AOL’s ad business still may not look so hot. Display ad revenue in the quarter was up only up 3 percent." [zdnet]

Time Warner will separate the AOL access and advertising businesses. That needs to happen anyway. We need to judge AOL on the advertising business and Time Warner needs to sell its access business. The problem: AOL’s ad business still may not look so hot. Display ad revenue in the quarter was up only up 3 percent.

Media conglomerate Time Warner plans to separate its struggling AOL unit's Internet access business from its Web portal and online advertising components, CEO Jeff Bewkes said Wednesday. ... The CEO also suggested the company may reduce its stake in Time Warner Cable. [thestreet]

Rumors abound about what will happen with AOL. Some say ErathLink. Some say Google. More likely it will whither and decay without a buyer, much like ELN.

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