AOL/Time Warner

Biggest quarterly loss in history

[MarkHutch]

According to "The News with Brian Williams" via MSNBC, the LA Times will report tomorrow that AOL/Time Warner will report the largest quarterly loss in history. Details in tomorrows LA times newspaper...

(edited by: MarkHutch at 7:09 pm (utc) on April 24, 2002)

[txbakers]

"Why am I not surprised?"

Can anyone really tell me what AOL offers that a regular ISP doesn't?

[agerhart]

I think that AOL made it easy for people to use the Internet that weren't tech or Internet savvy and oriented. People are starting know more and more.

[Laisha]

Can anyone really tell me what AOL offers that a regular ISP doesn't?

Training wheels.

Were it not for AOL, most of us would be doing something else for a living, since they are in large part responsible for the "popularity" of the internet.

[john316]

it's AOL / TIME WARNER

I doubt if the ISP business is not profitable. There are a lot of eggs in the combined basket...

[seofan]

The marketing model set by offering free CD's with the setup software worked for a while. It's time to let go of that financial drain. I've wallpapered my kids walls with the free CD's (really). It worked for a while - but now is a huge financial drain.

[bigjohnt]

>Training wheels.

EXACTLY. I've been using that analogy for years. I actually recommended AOL for dozens of clients and families to learn their way around the computer. Now that they can click correctly, and are a little more savvy, they are moving onto the "big web".

There are still a lot of people who think that AOL *IS* the web, but they are catching on, and AOL is losing share. They are also facing fierce competition from ISP's who compile good "average family" content for them. MSN is also late to the game, but well heeled.
The aggressive CD campaign is losing steam. FREE 1000 hours!* *If you use them in the first month.

Great, last time I checked there were only 720 hours in a month!

[NFFC]

>wallpapered my kids walls with the free CD's

Some historical information here;

[calafia.com...]

That could have been one killer site

[john316]

>>Great, last time I checked there were only 720 hours in a month! <<

I guess that depends on how you do your billing . :)

[seofan]

Some historical information here;

[calafia.com...]

Interesting! Thanks NFFC...now if we only knew what conversion rate of "sign-ups" were applied to number of disks made available over each quarter.....

[NFFC]

Let's not over react, they only lost $54.2 billion this quarter.

[caine]

how the heck can anyone afford to lose that much money in a quarter and not go bust ?

[NFFC]

It took a $54 billion charge to write off goodwill. Obviously.

[cyril kearney]

My understanding is that this number is just accounting "fluff". It is the measure of the "warm and tender feelings" that people had for Time Warner prior to the merger with AOL.

This Good Will was given a value and the reduction in Good Will caused the loss.

At the end of the day AOL's stock had risen because this Good Will number is really just a magic number. In the Alice in Wonderland of Accounting practices this Enron-ish number is meaningless.

Wink-wink, nod-nod, don't worry their Auditor has certified the numbers.

[minnapple]

AOL is experiencing the aging of the internet.
The new 20 something buyers are experienced and savvy and face it, AOL is not cool.
The 10 something group, are starting to tell their parents their current isp is lame. That hits the 30 to early 40 market.
The 50 market, not sure . . .