America Online (AOL) Comments

Media Owners editors   Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:24pm on Thursday, December 10th, 2009

AOL Celebrates Day One as an Independent Company

December 9, 2009 -- Today AOL marks its first day as an independent, public company following its spin-off from Time Warner Inc.

“As we look to the future on this important day for AOL, our company is focused on building the highest quality content for consumers and the best products and services for our advertising and publishing partners,” CEO Tim Armstrong said. “Our content sites and advertising platforms give AOL a unique seat at the Internet table and we intend to maximize these valuable assets and our scale to return our business to growth.”

AOL is one of the largest producers of content on the Web. It aims to expand its content offerings significantly and become the largest scaled player in local content and platforms.

Seed.com, AOL’s new, premium content management system, offers a unique opportunity for professional contributors to be seen, heard and read on AOL’s properties.

Patch, AOL’s hyper-local platform, is expected to reach 30 U.S. communities by the end of the year, with plans to launch hundreds more sites in towns across the United States in 2010.

AOL is a scaled player and top brand in the Internet advertising business. It aims to become the largest display platform for publishers.

AOL’s domestic audience is nearly 100 million unique visitors per month and more than 250 million unique visitors globally.

John   Las Vergas

Posted at 12:17pm on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Soledad O’Brien is such a phony. In April 2008, Reverend Jeremiah Wright gave a speech in Detroit to the NAACP.  One of the things that  he said in this speech was that black and white children learn with different parts of their brain, and then gave an "unflattering imitation of the way white pastors speak."  Peoples comments were that he gave a racial speech. Soledad  O'Brien, on CNN, was quoted as saying, in a gushing manner, that the speech was a "home run" and "really funny." When questioned about the things he said in the speech, she would say things like, what he really meant was .....or what he wanted to say was... Once again she's covering the truth and being racist.  Just as with the Henry Gates incident.  In an appearance on Anderson Cooper, the night or so before CNN's "The Moment of Truth" she appeared enraged that it was a racial profile against Gates. She said that she got calls from her FRIENDS saying it was all about Gates being black.  She went on that show with the purpose, at all costs, to destroy the credibility of the white police officer and throw him under the bus.  When Cooper was talking she wanted to make the point that Gates said "Thank You" to the police officers.  By mentioning that, she was purposely misrepresenting the truth by playing down Gates' belligerence and racial remarks, which she didn't even mention.  Even Gates' attorney and friend, said to the media that he used very strong language. Colon Powell and President Obama both said he should take blame in the incident.  I have seen this in many occasions with her, where she doesn't speak the truth and hides the true facts.  Another time on Anderson Cooper, Cooper said to O'Brien that Senator John McCain hasn't brought race into the campaign, like he said he wouldn't.  You would think her response would have been something like, that's great because he shouldn't.  Instead she strongly insinuated that he would, even in the last week of the campaign. Also, her questioning style, in interviews  is completely different with a white person than it is with a black person.  Like in her interview with Henry Gates in "The Moment of Truth"  She just went along with his lies. I have seen several comments on various websites about her racism.  There are many other examples I could give of her racial bias, dishonesty and hypocrisy. She seems to consider herself to be black. She mentioned in an interview that her parents made it clear to her “you’re black” and that’s all there is to it.
She’s all about being #1, she wants the world to revolve around her. She comes first, before her family. She wants to be a celebrity figure and a star. In interviews she says she works 6 days a week, mostly out of town, and on some holidays. She goes to gala events, concerts, lots of entertainment events, as a single woman, leaving her husband and kids behind.
I think Soledad O’Brien is a very poor journalist. What ever happened to the days of CNN with Bernard Shaw and Judy Woodruff? They were honorable journalists. You could believe what they said. John Las Vegas

Media Owners editors   Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 10:42pm on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Google bought a 5 percent interest in AOL from Time Waner for $1 billion in 2006.

Now Time Warner has bought back Google's stake in AOL for $283 million, Reuters reported on July 27, 2009:

"Time Warner Inc paid $283 million for Google Inc's 5 percent stake in AOL, the Internet company said in a U.S. regulatory filing on Monday.

Time Warner, which plans to spin off AOL by the end of the year, bought the stake from Google on July 8, AOL said in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The price that the company paid for Google's stake implies that AOL has a total value of about $5.7 billion."

The full story:
www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE56Q5MX20090727

Stephen James   Daytona Beach,Florida

Posted at 4:40pm on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

United we all Stand Again!
American Business: Please run below public service announcement as soon as possible: Godspeed and thank you! America's Disabled Veterans
*** Attention Patriot Americans***
Did you know that it is dishonorable and improper to throw your worn flags to the trash & not provide Flag Lighting after dark?
Worn American Flags must be Honorably Cremated.
Call your Disabled Veterans for pickup of all of your worn, torn, and faded Flags. Replace with Made in the USA Flags.Get Uncle Sam window-vehicle decals and the new Solar Lighted Wind Swivel Flag Pole distributed by your Disabled Veterans. Now you can display your flag 24 hours a day!
telephone 386-767-5778
*** United we all Stand Again ***

Eric Kallgren   Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:58am on Friday, May 29th, 2009

Writing at Wired on March 12, 2009, Fred Vogelstein asks if AOL's new CEO has lost his mind:

"Of all the people who have lined up thinking they could fix AOL, Tim Armstrong, Google’s head of US ad sales, is certainly the most prominent. He’s been at Google almost from the beginning — originally working out of his house in Connecticut — and he has played a huge role in making Google the ad juggernaut it is today. Thanks to all that work he’s probably worth more than $500 million now.

All of that will be good for AOL. Will it be good for Armstrong? He thinks so, obviously. I think he’s lost his marbles.

Armstrong is smart — indeed, he is one of the smartest ad executives walking. He’s one of the few in the industry who is as comfortable with geeks in Silicon Valley as with the power lunch crowd in New York.

The problem is that AOL doesn’t just need restructuring, it needs a brain transplant. Its business has been in decline since the last bubble burst — more than eight years ago. It had a great brand. Indeed, for the first decade of its life people thought it was the Internet — like people think of Google today.

But unlike Google, which is an innovation machine, AOL has become a place where good ideas go to die. You don’t innovate as an AOL executive anymore, you make grandiose claims about a vision and wait for the next restructuring that frees you from any accountability."

The full story:
www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/03/has-googles-tim/

Eric Kallgren   Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 4:00pm on Friday, April 24th, 2009

AOL is planning to launch a range of new web sites, BusinessWeek magazine reported on April 23, 2009:

"You may be forgiven for rolling your eyes at another story about AOL (TWX) yanking back the curtains to present a shiny new notion. Ex-Google (GOOG) ad head Tim Armstrong is AOL's third new CEO since 2006. The company has gone through something like 72 strategies since merging with Time Warner in 2001, if I am counting correctly.

Nevertheless, the revenue-challenged (its ad dollars shrank 18% last quarter) and consummately uncool AOL is readying a blitz around Web content through its (unfortunately named) MediaGlow unit, which encompasses all of AOL's content sites. There now are more than 70, ranging from the broad behemoths—AOL News, celeb outlet TMZ—to the more tightly defined, like PlaySavvy, for parents of video gamers. And MediaGlow has previously disclosed plans to launch at least 30(!) more in 2009."

Eric Kallgren   Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 2:31pm on Thursday, January 29th, 2009

On January 28, 2009, Computerworld magazine reported that AOL will lay off 10% of staff:

Time Warner Inc.'s underperforming AOL LLC Internet unit will lay off 700 employees, about 10% of its staff, a move it is taking in response to the global economic downturn.

In a memo to employees, AOL CEO Randy Falco said the move was necessary because the tough economy has led marketers to slash their advertising spending. It will take AOL several quarters to complete the layoffs.

Those employees who avoid the ax still face bad news: They will not get a merit pay increase this year, which Falco described as "painful" yet prudent.

AOL will also consolidate facilities and lease unused space in its Dulles, Va., headquarters. The company also plans to review its international operations and global shared-services functions, as well as all of its products and services, seeking opportunities to improve efficiency.

"With these and other changes, we will take significant annual run-rate costs out of our business while, importantly, retaining the flexibility to invest in our growth strategy," Falco wrote in the memo, which was seen by IDG News Service.

Although Falco is blaming these belt-tightening measures on the current economic crisis, AOL has been generating disappointing advertising revenue for most of his tenure at the helm.

Many industry observers found Falco's appointment in November 2006 perplexing. He replaced Jonathan Miller, who engineered the AOL business transformation from one based on subscription fees to one based on advertising.

While Miller had years of experience in the Internet market, Falco, a TV industry veteran who had been president and chief operating officer of the NBC Universal Television Group, had virtually none.

Miller, who was unexpectedly fired, had earned praise for his work as AOL CEO, a post he assumed in August 2002. In 2006's third quarter, the last full one under Miller's lead, AOL's ad revenue grew 46%. For the 2006 fiscal year, AOL had ad revenue growth of 41%, faster than the 35% growth of the overall U.S. online ad market at the time.

Under Falco, AOL has routinely failed to grow its ad revenue on par with the industry average. In October 2007, AOL laid off 2,000 employees, which at the time represented 20% of its staff.

In its third quarter, ended Sept. 30, 2008, AOL's revenue fell 17% to $1.01 billion from $1.22 billion in the same quarter in 2007. Specifically, AOL's ad revenue fell 6%, while spending in the U.S. online ad market grew 11% during the third quarter. AOL's adjusted operating income before depreciation dropped to $398 million from $428 million.

Last month, Time Warner partly blamed AOL for a downward revision of its financial forecast for the 2008 fiscal year. Time Warner said that it will post a net loss for 2008, partly because a $25 billion asset write-down involving AOL and other units. It had previously said that it expected to earn between $1.04 and $1.07 per share. Time Warner will announce its 2008 financial results on Feb. 4.

PATRICK   CONCORD,NC

Posted at 4:53pm on Sunday, April 20th, 2008

WHEN WILL AOL PROFILES BE AS FLEXIBLE AS MYSPACE PROFILES?

cindy   victoria bc canada

Posted at 10:26pm on Monday, August 20th, 2007

sirs : i would like to kown u.s. aol with canada coming back on line togethere like 4 yrs ago.... i miss it... news and chat rooms... pleaase bring it back ..way it was ... thank you
cindy