AOL will be sold this year.

[H2dream]

"AOL Seeks a Separation in Name Only"
[nytimes.com...]

"Parent Firm May Drop AOL From Its Name "
[washingtonpost.com...]

"AOL Time Warner Moves to Eliminate AOL From Name"
[biz.yahoo.com...]

The question - who will buy AOL? Yahoo ... Google ... MSN?

;)

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 2:37 pm (utc) on Aug. 13, 2003]

[msr986]

I didn't see anything that has suggested that AOL was for sale. Did I miss this in one of the articles, or is this an opinion?

BTW, the first two links require site registration. (So I did not read them)

[juniperwasting]

IMHO AOL might just have to go back to trying to make a good product to survive. No giant CD feeding corperation to back them.

[martinibuster]

AOL isn't for sale, per se- but they've been a huge drag on Time Warner's stock. That's why they pushed Stephen Case (former CEO of AOL) out of the helm of AOL-TW.

I would run out of fingers and toes counting all the negatives that AOL brings to that marriage- including the SEC investigations, declining subscribers, lawsuit by CalPers, etc.

Time Warner definitely wants out, and they've been chipping away at that for awhile. Anybody who has ever been through a divorce, or any kind of break up, can see this a mile away.

Now the questions are:
Does Yahoo have the belly to swallow them?

Will MSN be able to purchase them without an antitrust suit dragging them down?

Does AskJeeves have the wallet to bankroll this?

Will it benefit Google to step up and take over AOL?

[H2dream]

This is my theory only - TW need to drop AOL from name as they have found a buyer... and I hope that Microsoft will buy AOL

[matimer]

my 2 cents:

AOL n' Timewarner's long term profitability looks pretty sweet.

As internet use expands and people's familiarity with it increases subscription based magazines will see a surge (i.e. all the time warner owned magazines)...

People who are fed up w/having to get individual magazine subscriptions will bow down to the great AOL (and resubscribe)

my rambling babbling

matimer