AOL Time Warner posted the largest ever loss in U.S. corporate history for 2002, including $44.9 Billion in the last quarter alone. Most of the loss is a write down for the devaluation of AOL since the merger. Ted Turner is also stepping down as Vice Chairman, and he's rumored to want to buy CNN from the company. Didn't he say it was the happiest day of his life when the merger went through? Losing a couple of billion dollars has probably changed his mind about that.
AOL - $98.7 Billion Loss
- Thread starter SteveC
- Start date
Cliptin
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Probably force of habit but I could have sworn Steve Case made the original post. 
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
DIE AOL DIE
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Um... Star Trek 3? Maybe?
Now that my day - or at least the last 45 minutes of it - has been made brighter by this glorious news of AOL's impending financial ruin, let's think about things for a second.
WTF is wrong with this company?!? Time-Warner has a media library worth billions of dollars in any format. AOL is the next best thing to "the idiot channel" on the internet. Hello? Captive audience?
"Download 30 minutes of Looney Tunes, only $2.95."
"Subscribe to the digital archives of 'Superman', only $20 a year"
"Search every issue of 'Life' magazine, only $1 a month"
"Download a digital archive of Atlantic Records 1954 jazz releases, only $30"
How hard can it be to make money off that collection of information? I know most of their loss is fallout from their poor accounting and overvalued stock, but come on!
Now that my day - or at least the last 45 minutes of it - has been made brighter by this glorious news of AOL's impending financial ruin, let's think about things for a second.
WTF is wrong with this company?!? Time-Warner has a media library worth billions of dollars in any format. AOL is the next best thing to "the idiot channel" on the internet. Hello? Captive audience?
"Download 30 minutes of Looney Tunes, only $2.95."
"Subscribe to the digital archives of 'Superman', only $20 a year"
"Search every issue of 'Life' magazine, only $1 a month"
"Download a digital archive of Atlantic Records 1954 jazz releases, only $30"
How hard can it be to make money off that collection of information? I know most of their loss is fallout from their poor accounting and overvalued stock, but come on!
jtr1962
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Mercutio said:
Actually that quote by Mark is from the original series, specifically the episode called "Amok Time"(no, I don't know all the episodes by heart). Spock goes into heat(for lack of a better word), returns to Vulcan to marry, his bride-to-be issues a challenge and chooses an opponent(Capt. Kirk) to fight for her. It's a fight to the death, and naturally Spock wins. I won't tell you the ending in case you ever watch it.
Regarding the main topic, it couldn't happen to a better company. At least now we know how much it costs to blanket the country with AOL CDs. The least they could have done was use CD-RWs so the disks would have some redeeming value.
Pradeep
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Mercutio said:
Hehe hee. Nicely said.
Tea
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Nonzense, JTR. Write-once CDs are readily recyclable. Belinda puts strings through the convienient little hole in the middle and hangs lots of them up on the fruit trees to scare the birds away.
It spooks them completely. For about ... er ... maybe the first day or two.
It spooks them completely. For about ... er ... maybe the first day or two.
Buck
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Tea said:
Just like AOL - after a couple of days of receiving that new CD, the sparkling magic of those shiny discs lures unsuspecting customers into installing the largest and most relentless virus they've ever installed on their machines.
Fushigi
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Am I the only one wondering how a company with over 35 million customers, each of which pays $23.95 a month (although rates may vary outside the US), can possibly NOT be making semi trucks full of cash? Add to that what Merc said about the Time-Warner media library/publishing empire and it's even more staggering.
It just backs up what I've been saying more and more lately. Most companies nowadays are woefully mismanaged. Perhaps if we really want out of our recession we should eliminate all current boards of directors, CEOs, etc. and call a 12 month moratorium on stock trading.
- Fushigi
It just backs up what I've been saying more and more lately. Most companies nowadays are woefully mismanaged. Perhaps if we really want out of our recession we should eliminate all current boards of directors, CEOs, etc. and call a 12 month moratorium on stock trading.
- Fushigi
time
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I dunno about that - what about Office, or even Windblows itself?Buck said:
Buck
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time said:
True to a degree, Office is a beast, and intermingles itself with the OS like Coral Tree roots around your irrigation system. But, for the most part, Office and Windows are what we install and use everyday, and plan on keeping for quite some time. I have customers that regularly cycle through ISPs like they're hot potatoes, and when it comes to removing the remnants of AOL, the gamble begins. MSN, Juno, Earthlink, and NetZero all uninstall easier (at least in my limited experience, and when not all installed together).
But I will give AOL credit, if you've had one or all of the aforementioned ISP Programs installed (except AOL) and want to switch to AOL, AOL will reconfigure your system and dump those other guys like a bad habit. Recently a customer had several programs installed from different ISPs (except AOL) and buggered up their configuration settings to the point where it was going to cost them a nice penny to set things straight. Instead of spending the money on me, they installed AOL and everything was reset and functioning properly.
Hey, it saved me the headache of figuring out what NetZero, MSN, and Juno conspired together against Windows XP.
Mercutio said:
I agree they haven't done anything close to what is possible with their content since the merger went through, but you have to remember that 85-90% of their custormers are on dialup. The quality of streaming media at 56k just sucks. Even at 300k, most of the video on the web is far too blurry to be viewed at a decent size. If it was encoded properly, video can be quite viewable at 300k, but that's assuming they take the time to do it right, instead of going for the quickest option.
The cost of digitizing all their media would also be huge. There's no real justification for that expense if only a small percentage of their customers are able to enjoy it without waiting forever for long download. If everyone had at least 1Mbit connections, then it might be worthwhile for them to do it, but until then I don't see them digitizing everything.
time said:
The loss isn't a cash loss, it's a write down on the devaluation of the companies assets (mostly of the AOL division). If you take out the charge, the company actually did make money (.28 a share), and revenues were up year over year. In 2000, before the merger, AOL had a $181 billion market cap. Now the AOL division is worth $7.7 billion. This loss has to be accounted for under the new accounting laws in the U.S. which is why it twice had to take huge write offs last year.