SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:27AM
One will note that the disagree mod holds no score. No +1, no -1. This is meant to head off troll/flamebait/overrated that would otherwise be used to indicate disagreement. Of course, nothing's stopping us mods (ok, this UID doesn't quite have the karma to get frequent mod points yet) from using troll/flamebait/overrated to indicate disagreement, but selecting disagree is a much more agreeable way of doing that.
It can also ask the community at large to provide either the nature of the disagreement or perhaps, more productively, further evidence why one should not disagree with the post marked “disagree.”
So… doing my part… (this comment is still largely offtopic and should probably get -1, feeding the trolls).
GGP is likely modded -1 troll because it's nothing more than an ad homenim. (Also note there are 2 -1 troll mods and 1 underrated mod, so ⅓ of mods who felt the need to rate that comment disagreed that it should be -1.) What I can't understand is why offtopic wasn't used. I have no idea what this story has to do with gewg_ or huffpo. Would you or another AC care to elaborate (or a UID if I'm completely missing something)?
Hope that helps.