Time Warner to amputate cable tentacle

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It's a funny reminder of the bubble... #

Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 19:02 GMT

Remember when AOL bought Time Warner-Turner to become AOL-Time Warner? Now the renamed TIme Warner wants to sell the AOL portion of the company and can't find a buyer.

I have a free tip for them. Perhaps they should merge the AOL division with the Time Warner Cable division and make it AOL Cable. They could offer the cable connection, the Internet access, the AOL forums and ads, and the TV channel delivery all in one package. Then they could sell that and be done with two lackluster portions of the company.

Daniel B.

Time Warner Cable #

Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 19:02 GMT

Ahhh... I wonder if they would punk TW Cable to change the broadband service's name (RoadRunner) as it would no longer be part of the corporate trademark pool.

I still remember when I was complaining about those stupid "one computer allowed for your cable connection only!", and that priceless response I got from tech support... "We're not AOL". I got a lot of laughs when the merge came.

Oh well, at least it looks like AOL is going down as the piece of crap it has always been.

Anonymous Coward

Business done wrong #

Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 07:42 GMT

How they can manage to be so craptastic is a study in modern American business practices how they constantly manage to shit in the pool.

The Wanderer

I guess the marriage didn't last... #

Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 07:42 GMT

Ah yes... it seems like yesterday, those heady times back in the day, around the turn of the stomach... err, millennium when AOL just HAD to have Time Warner for... what was it again? Oh yes...

"Together, they represent an unprecedented powerhouse,” said Scott Ehrens, a media analyst with Bear Stearns. "If their mantra is content, this alliance is unbeatable. Now they have this great platform they can cross-fertilize with content and redistribute.” (CNN Money, 10 Jan 2000, found at http://money.cnn.com/2000/01/10/deals/aol_warner/)

Or perhaps not.

Anonymous Coward

I worked for them in the bubble days #

Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 09:55 GMT

I remember attending a worker-ant AGM shortly after the big merger - There was a big presentation about how the merger commission had stopped their acquisition of Thorn EMI... But! they were not going to give up. They were going after Thorn EMI and they WERE going to buy them out!

A scant few months later, fuckedcompany was compelling daily reading and consumers were starting to savvy-up. Perhaps more pertinently, there began a huge backlash against their inertia-selling tactics. A lot of people got caught out by their 'free' trials and lost money. Also we began to haemorrhage customers to broadband and there was no strategy to combat that, or even an acknowledgement that there was a problem. What problem? They were the MOST POWERFULL COMPANY IN THE WORLD. Mwa-ha ha hahahahaah!

Aodhhan

No doubt... #

Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 12:39 GMT

Steve Case is laughing his tail off right now. Albeit on his 37 million dollar yacht.

Perhaps AOL should go after the Scientology community... then they could increase their charges 5-600% and sell them on the fact they need it to obtain whatever falacy they attempt to attain.

Anonymous Coward