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Verizon has announced that it will be acquiring AOL for $4.4 billion. Those of us that remember AOL from the dial-up days when all noobs used it might wonder what it possibly has worth that kind of cash today. Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO, said:
"AOL has once again become a digital trailblazer, and we are excited at the prospect of charting a new course together in the digitally connected world. At Verizon, we've been strategically investing in emerging technology, including Verizon Digital Media Services and OTT, that taps into the market shift to digital content and advertising. AOL's advertising model aligns with this approach, and the advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams."
A NPR blog has an excerpt from a paywalled WSJ article which further explains:
"Verizon has said it plans to launch a video service focused on mobile devices this summer. The company has offered few details, but last month Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said the service will offer a mix of paid, free and ad-supported content and won't try to replicate traditional TV.
"The service will feature shorter snippets rather than 30 or 60 minute shows. It also could include multicast programming—a sort of broadcast service that uses cellular airwaves—for delivering live content like sports and concerts, along with on-demand viewing."
NPR also notes:
Many people probably still associate AOL as one of their first Internet service providers. But more than two decades later, AOL is more of a media company: It owns The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, MapQuest and Moviefone. According to the company, it is the fourth largest online property in the U.S. with 200 million monthly visitors to its sites.
What does SN think? Can this deal possibly be worth it?
(Score: 5, Funny) by hemocyanin on Tuesday May 12 2015, @10:26PM
Will Verizon get the floppies or the CDs? At least with the AOL floppies, you had a never ending supply of usable storage media.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday May 12 2015, @11:31PM
Yeah, with the floppies you could reformat and have a whole 1.4 Megs of storage.
Then came tons of CDs which were read only disks. We all made mobiles out of them. I even made a solar oven with some chicken wire and mess of AOL disks. Seems like I was getting them every week.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 1) by rufty on Wednesday May 13 2015, @03:27AM
Strung'em on lines over my seed beds for birdscarers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jasassin on Tuesday May 12 2015, @11:38PM
I took an old washing machine to the dump, when behind a mountain of garbage I heard the Street Fighter II announcers voice. I walked around the garbage heap and there he was! All of a sudden he shouts... AOL install disk vs. E.T. cartridge... FIGHT! Then and there, in the middle of a junkyard, I witnessed the most epic battle of my life.
I'll let you all speculate who won.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by everdred on Wednesday May 13 2015, @02:28PM
It sounds as if you won.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Wednesday May 13 2015, @08:43PM
I fought the law...
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @12:34AM
I wonder how many install disks AOL actually sent out. While the flow of install media seemed never ending, you would need enough space to hold over 700,000 floppies before approaching a modern average sized 1TB HDD.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mendax on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:08AM
Those floppies were great. AOL's floppy-sending heyday was when I was in grad school. I worked in the mailroom for the dorms and had to deal with them all the time. Because they floppies were sent as bulk-rate junk mail, there were no forwarding or return privileges for them. Furthermore, they did not ask for notification if the intended recipient had moved. (The post office loved those because they got paid to send those to the sender.) Therefore, all we could do is toss them, or in my case, keep them. (We weren't really supposed to keep them but I like to think of it as recycling.) After I started working in the mailroom I never had to buy another blank floppy disk EVER. I did have to buy labels though.
As for the CD's when they came out, I used them as colorful coasters for drinks.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.