Gawker
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the internet
Michael Jackson Traffic Melts Entire Internet
Any doubts about Michael Jackson's megastardom should have ended after news of the singer's death tripped up Google and crashed AOL Instant Messenger, Wikipedia, TMZ and, of course, Twitter. A survey of the epic traffic: More »
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By Ryan TateComment by DahlELama: I find it decidedly fascinating that I have not seen a single comment from or mention of Deborah Rowe. Has... 10 Responses | Other threads
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conflicts of interest
AOL's Shameless CEO Bailout
Tim Armstrong, AOL CEO, just bought a company from... Tim Armstrong, investor. The official line is that the deal is on the up and up, since the consummate salesman won't be taking any profits off his stake. Rich. More » -
jobs
Fired AOL Ad Man Was Paid $60,000 Per Day
Gregory Coleman was hired in February to run AOL advertising network Platform A. Two weeks later, the CEO who hired him was out; two months after that, Coleman's own departure was announced. But at least AOL made it worth his while. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by thewickedwitchisdead: I doubt he negotiated for $3 million severance. I would wager he was much smarter--negotiated for a year of salary,... 1 Responses | Other threads
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deals
Is There a Coporate Suicide Plot Behind AOL Spinoff?
The surrender of AOL was a humiliating enough denouement for Time Warner, the old-line media conglomerate once imagined invincible. But there's talk it could get worse. What if Time Warner ceased to exist as an independent concern? More »
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By Ryan TateComment by ModestProposal: This is totally wrong. The Networks division of Time Warner, composed of Turner and HBO, has high single digit... more » | Other threads
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spinoffs
The AOL-Time Warner Saga Bookends One Sorry Decade
The 21st century dawned with news that two media megaliths, AOL and Time Warner, were to merge. Critics howled that the vast tentacles of a combined AOL-TW would subsume us all. Today, Time Warner confirmed it's spinning off AOL, ending a business saga that defined whatever you're calling the 2000s. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by persimmon: I'm hoping this means we'll never hear the word "synergy" uttered again. 5 Responses | Other threads
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housekeeping
Valleywag: An Instruction Manual
Dear Ryan:
As I head to NBC to run its Bay Area site, I'm leaving you one Silicon Valley gossip blog, used but in good condition. A few thoughts on how to keep it that way. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by RheaPollstry: Is that Owen? Mmmmmm, I do luv me some bears. And working in a bar, no less! My heart is... 4 Responses | Other threads
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rumormonger
New AOL CEO Wants to Buy Twitter's Web Cool
An AOL tipster tells us incoming CEO Tim Armstrong, the Google sales veteran, wants to buy Twitter, the hot message-broadcasting startup. One problem: He hasn't even started at AOL yet. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Kaskaad Splash: <------ re = camaro ad to the left ... is Bah the new Meh? was there a memo? 2 Responses | Other threads
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fake trends
AOL Email Now as Ironic as a Trucker Hat
Is AOL email now retro cool? One longtime AOL user sure hopes so!
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By Owen ThomasComment by wasurhandle: It just reads like a giant ad for AOL. Like when McDonalds urbanized by calling themselves MickyD's. 3 Responses | Other threads
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exits
AOL Boots Loser CEO for Google's Tim Armstrong
At last, AOL has done something right: The Time Warner Internet unit has hired Google's Tim Armstrong as its new CEO, booting the laughably incompetent duo of CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Nick Denton: Why are you so sure he's the best man for the job? He's no product guy -- and arguably that's... 4 Responses | Other threads
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twitterati
The Twitterati Drink Alone, or with Jenny 8. Lee
What's Twitter good for? Knowing that your life of quiet desperation is shared by the rich, powerful, or merely well-read, for starters. Steve Case, Sasha Frere-Jones, and Rob Corddry deserve twitty pity: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Golly Gee Holly: Why don't these people just text their twitter things?!? I have a blackberry but I don't have twitterberry. IT'S NOT... 4 Responses | Other threads
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layoffs
Attention, AOL Layoff Victims: Steve Case Is Sad
AOL, the failing Time Warner Internet unit, is laying off another 700 employees via emails alerting them to an "important meeting." Even the pink-slipping process is predictable now. And former CEO Steve Case? He's sad. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by spraytanman: Like most things in business - success happens by accident. Its what you do after that defines who you are. Steve... 4 Responses | Other threads
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trendwatch
How Facebook, Google, and Yahoo Are Making Ads Part of Your Life
The Valley's biggest players are all racing to be the center of your online life, collecting your photos, blog posts, Twitter messages, and comments into one stream — and then dosing it with real-time ads. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Greg Lenz: Why do Facebook's expenses groww with every user it adds? 5 Responses | Other threads
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death of print
Computers Destroying the Print Media: A History
Is it any surprise that print is dying? Not for newspapers. In fits and starts since the 1970s and 1980s, they (and others) have been looking to go electronic but they screwed it up. Watch! More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by joefry: The only value left in having physical print is the tangibility of it... some people just like having a paper... 2 Responses | Other threads
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layoffs
You've got pink slips: AOL axes 700 of 7,000. Memo!
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acquisitions
The Unbearable Yahoo-AOL-Microsoft Dance
Someone buy something, please. Our New York sighting of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock missed one: Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, who'd like to unload AOL. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by macbeach: I can't help but think that any deal involving Microsoft will be challenged legally. Nobody's going to complain as... 1 Responses | Other threads
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acquisitions
Yahoo's sad, sad state
Another day, another hare-brained scheme to buy Yahoo. This time, the player isn't Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, but former AOL CEO Jon Miller, who now runs a venture-capital fund. But the prospect of a deal seems as far off and fanciful as Microsoft, which spent most of the spring and summer trying to buy Yahoo, coming back to the negotiating table. Miller wants to buy Yahoo, but is having trouble coming up with the money, the Wall Street Journal reports. Is there no one serious who wants to buy this company?
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By Owen ThomasComment by giddieup: what puzzles me is the price he says he can get for yahoo. 20-22. that is almost a 100% premium over... 2 Responses | Other threads
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yahoo
If only Yahoo would listen to Kara Swisher, she might stop emailing me
"Yahoo striking a Microsoft search deal first makes more sense" than closing a merger with AOL, writes overproductive BoomTown blogger Kara Swisher. Tracking the complicated, self-conflicting relationships between Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and Google is like trying to read Prince Valiant without a cheat sheet. Swisher's latest megapost fills in more details, but doesn't lead to anything more definite than "both Yahoo and AOL have to get to the core of what they are and are going to be." Ah, more layoffs.
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By Paul BoutinComment by cgsofly: [face palm] ugh. Sometimes I wish yahoo and aol would just disappear. 2 Responses | Other threads
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randy falco
AOL's know-nothing CEO
The heady rush of access can cloud a reporter's brain. Nicholas Carlson, late of Valleywag, now at Silicon Alley Insider, had stalked his prey inside New York's Natural History Museum: Randy Falco, the CEO of AOL. After Falco made a presentation to media buyers, Carlson buttonholed him and got his scoop: Falco is of the opinion that, with Jerry Yang out as CEO, President Sue Decker will swiftly follow. But he missed the real story. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Nicholas Carlson: Nah Falco was just hedging 1 Responses | Other threads
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earnings
When will Time Warner give up on AOL?
Time Warner has reported its third-quarter results, including AOL's numbers, and they are dismal. Internet-access revenues were down 26 percent, a loss everyone more or less expected, since the dial-up business is moribund. But advertising sales were down 6 percent. AOL management can't blame the market meltdown for this one, since that had barely started by the time the quarter ended. October through December, one assumes, will be much, much worse. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by teleprax: It's getting harder to justify having your search marketing team put any time or effort in to running on engines... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
If Scott Moore leaves Yahoo, does that mean it's buying AOL?
Scott Moore, the head of Yahoo Media Group, is leaving the company, reports BoomTown's Kara Swisher. A bad sign for the company: Moore ran some of Yahoo's most successful operations, including its news, finance, and sports websites. Why is Moore leaving now, having survived most of Yahoo's annus horribilis with his charm unruffled? The first conclusion I'll jump to: Talks with Time Warner to sell AOL to Yahoo are advancing, and Moore does not like his position in the merged entity. Update: Swisher writes: "Dead wrong guess as usual. Talks are slower than ever. He had the top job over Bill Wilson." Well, why didn't you say so in the first place, Kara?
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By Owen ThomasComment by karaswisher: I forgot you were in remedial reading, Owen. I said it here: "With high-ranking Yahoo execs like Moore gone, it will... 2 Responses | Other threads
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acquisitions
Yahoo, AOL still dating awkwardly
“This is not just unloading AOL for us,” a source close to Time Warner told Kara Swisher. “It is also an important strategic move for our future to get this right.” I love the way anonymous sources lie so convincingly. The truth, Swisher blogs, is both simpler and more boring: Yahoo and AOL don't really like each other. Neither company holds much attraction for the other. Important strategic move means an arranged marriage, forced on both sides by dwindling market value. Which reminds me: We should plot the number of Google engineers whose pending marriages have been "temporarily rescheduled for 2009."
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By Paul BoutinComment by Morphy: AOL and Yahoo are like two people buried up to their necks covered in honey next to an ant hill.... more » | Other threads
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xochi birch
Bebo founder admits her fortune came from ripoffs
Imitation is the sincerest form of getting rich. MySpace got bought early, on the cheap; Facebook has yet to cash out. Michael and Xochi Birch's sale of Bebo, a social network more popular overseas than in the U.S., to AOL for $850 million has been the best social-network cashout to date. And how did they manage it? Shamelessly copying other sites, Xochi Birch admits to the BBC. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by HardyEurytus: Xochi is the most endearing person you may ever meet. And what's so surprising about copying other sites? ... more » | Other threads
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weblogs inc.
AOL makes Jason Calacanis makes AOL look like geniuses
AOL has released numbers detailing the success of Weblogs Inc., its blog network for a reported $25 million. Since taking the company off of Jason Calacanis's and Brian Alvey's hands in 2005, AOL has seen visitor traffic climb 122 percent a year on average, from 1.4 million visitors to 13 million. Revenue went from $6 million to $30 million off of 13 million visitors. You'd think AOL could afford to pay their bloggers to blog.
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Comment by colonelpanic: That's pretty good validation of the first-mover advantage in the content market, for sure... more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
AOL cuts Yahoo, even before a deal's done
They say, of fastly dropping markets, that one should never try to catch a falling knife. In trying to sell AOL, Time Warner could be letting a sharp blade fly at Yahoo, the most likely buyer for the troubled Internet business. Will a deal happen? If so, for how much? No one really knows, but everyone wants this clumsy mating dance to be over. Henry Blodget floated and then retracted a rumor that a deal was imminent, for something in the range of $8 billion to $10 billion. More » -
yahoo
Jerry Yang in New York talking AOL deal
The much-talked-about talks between Yahoo and Time Warner to unload AOL? They're definitely on, says a tipster, who also claims Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker are in New York trying to cajole Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes into a deal before Yahoo announces third-quarter earnings later this month. Any Manhattan stargazers care to keep an eye out for him? Update: Kara Swisher now reports Yang has been in New York recently, but not, as our tipster claims, this week She also has lots and lots and lots of speculation about who will run a merged AOL-Yahoo.
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By Owen ThomasComment by jasondupree: Maybe Time Warner will buy Yahoo is a wierd turn of events. 1 Responses | Other threads
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cutbacks
AOL shutters homepage, blogs
So much for the value of user-generated content: AOL is shutterings its Journals blog, and a much older webpage-hosting service, AOL Hometown. [Silicon Alley Insider]
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By Owen ThomasComment by macbeach: Sniff. Can Geocities be far behind? (I hope not!) more » | Other threads
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hires
Marc Andreessen joins eBay's board, will crush you
Marc Andreessen has been invited to join the board at eBay. The online auction company has been struggling of late, never mind CEO John Donahoe's assertion that what's bad for the American economy is good for eBay. Andreessen, probably smelling the stink blowing in from the rising tide, stockpiled enough venture capital to last Ning through a "nuclear winter." Proving his acumen at swindling investors if nothing else — and he does know how to keep employees overworked between stints at eager, young startups like Netscape and Ning and layoff-happy AOL. [San Jose Mercury News]
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By Jackson WestComment by ResearchZilla: dude, it just hit me: marc is the chubby and nerdy twin of corgan (smashing pumpkins) but in his zwan... more » | Other threads
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mergers
Liberty Media ready to pay $1.42 billion for AOL dialup business
Liberty Media CEO John Malone told the Financial Times his company is ready to swap its $1.42 billion stake in Time Warner in order to acquire AOL's dialup business. There's just one holdup. "Time Warner still needs to divide the business," Malone complained to the FT. Though it's been more than two years since Time Warner decided to turn AOL into an online advertising concern and abandon the Internet service provider business, AOL won't be completely split until early 2009. Malone isn't the only exec impatient for Time Warner's book keepers to hurry it up. AOL CEO Randy Falco was overheard last week griping: "When is New York going to sell us?"
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Comment by macbeach: Is it possible that AOL is finding the dia-up business more valuable than they first thought? There are many people in... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Microsoft-Yahoo-AOL threesome just a sad, sad fantasy
The fantasy that someone will buy AOL from Time Warner in a complicated deal is getting even AOL CEO Randy Falco hot and bothered. A tipster told Silicon Alley Insider that Falco recently fumed, "When is New York going to sell us?" And to whom? "Sources close to AOL" told VentureBeat's Matt Marshall that Microsoft plans to aquire both Yahoo and AOL after those companies merge. We planned to give you a 100-word version of Marshall's story, but seven paragraphs in, we realized it made no sense. More »
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Comment by Migrant Blogger: In three-ways, someone always gets left out. more » | Other threads
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i love the 90s
Yahoo wants AOL, for the low, low price of $5 billion
Every time AOL comes up for sale, the price drops. When Yahoo-AOL merger talks began last spring, the tentative plan was to combine Yahoo and AOL and give Time Warner $10 billion worth of stock in the new company. Since then, Yahoo has weathered both Microsoft and Carl Icahn, and AOL's advertising business — the only reason why anyone would buy it — has stalled. So while merger talks continue, Yahoo now only wants to hand over $5 billion or so in stock, reports BoomTown's Kara Swisher. One reason why the deal might actually happen? More »
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Comment by sggrf: yahoo lacks a strategy. it's not just cost cutting. they need vision and a spine. today they have neither. more » | Other threads
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BidPlace
AOL launches ad exchange so advertisers can pay even lower rates
Everybody who's anybody has had an online-advertising exchange since the spring of 2007, when Google announced it would acquire DoubleClick and Yahoo overpaid for Right Media. AOL's advertising network, Platform-A, is finally catching up. Today it announced BidPlace, which top exec Lynda Clarizio told PaidContent will launch next year. How it works: More » -
deathwatch
How long will Randy Falco stay at AOL?
Let us say it, since every other writer seems too kind: As CEO of AOL, Randy Falco is an utter embarrassment. Silicon Alley Insider recounts his perplexing performance in front of a crowd of media executives gathered for Advertising Week in New York. "Radio was supposed to die 50 years ago," Falco said. "The reason radio is still around is because of mobile. The reason broadcast will still be around 50 years from now is because of mobile. All of our businesses up here will continue to grow because of video applications on mobile." What? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Rachel Marsden: ROCK ME AMADOUCHEBAG!!! Falco's dead. more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Cisco buys AIM-for-geeks Jabber
Why is a router maker buying Jabber, an open-source AIM clone? Disgruntled network admins (I'm still one in my heart) understand what Cisco's own press release doesn't spell out in English. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by sample032: Why not implement a Jabber client on the switches and routers? That seems easier. 2 Responses | Other threads
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email
Yahoo dominates Sarah Palin's email contact list
Sometimes I hear people ask: "Who uses Yahoo Mail anymore?" The answer, of course, is just about everybody. ComScore puts the number at around 260 million people — far more than Google's 90 million. But statistics can feel abstract. Now that a 4chan reprobate has hacked into Alaska governor and "average hockey mom" Sarah Palin's private Yahoo email account and discovered, among other things, her contact list, we have a more concrete demonstration of Yahoo's dominance of Palin's decidedly down-home demographic. Here is a list contains six Yahoo addresses, an AOL address, a Hotmail address and exactly zero Gmail addresses. More »
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Comment by Migrant Blogger: Surprised to see a few people using AOL and Hotmail. It's like I'm back in college again. more » | Other threads
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the olds
AOL users tell New York Times "inertia rocks"
“I retain my AOL mail address because so many of my friends and mailing lists have it that it would be a pain to switch.” That's the succinct summary of the 394 comments posted to New York Times Bits blogger Saul Hansell's post, "Who Uses AOL and Why?" Hansell had posted the question because he wasn't sure AOL's latest portal redesign — quite probably offered to him as an exclusive story — was newsworthy. Instead, he came up with a dry suggestion that AOL take a clue from phone companies. It's so crazy it just might work: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by MuglyTheWorm: i didnt even know aol actually served a purpose more » | Other threads
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online advertising
AOL lays off 5 to 10, will miss revenue targets
Time Warner CFO John Martin told investors yesterday that while online subsidiary AOL's ad network Platform-A "had been growing like a weed,'' the company now doubts it will hit its revenue targets. "We have seen some cancellations," Martin told conferencegoers. "It gives us pause in terms of our confidence to ramp advertising in the back half of the year.'' AOL also laid of 5 to 10 employees from its "Shared Services" group yesterday, SAI reports — the only surprise there being the small size of the cut. AOL's recent efforts to combat waning advertiser and consumer interest in its brand include creating a new huge banner ad format and also allowing AOL.com visitors to access email from other providers.
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Comment by MuglyTheWorm: i didn't even know aol still existed, what exactly does it do now? more » | Other threads
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design
Updated AOL.com: a place for Yahoo Mail, Google search, wire stories and banner ads
Time Warner's underperforming online subsidiary AOL updated its homepage today. The biggest change is that AOL now allows users to access their Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail accounts from AOL.com. Along with new ad formats on AOL.com such as photo galleries and video players, AOL also announced new sites for women, pop-culture junkies, and parents of gamers. It's just AOL's latest desperate attempt to recapture the relevance it's lost since it ceased to be Middle America's only way of getting online. Nothing else has worked yet. Analytics firm Compete says unique visitors to AOL.com are down 12.7 percent in th last year, from around 62 million in August 2007 to 54 million in August 2008. And while the rest of the online ad market grew 20 percent, AOL advertising revenues grew only 1.5 percent last quarter. -
self-promotion
5 rules for making a company video worth watching
Austin-based interactive ad agency Tocquigny embarrassed itself with a video meant to show prospective interns how fun it is to work at the company over the summer. Instead of showing how quirky and Internet-savvy Tocquigny was, it proved to be a turnoff — and a ripoff. Besides not copying someone else's work, what could Tocquigny have done differently? Using five examples the agency should have followed, we'll explain how to do a self-promotional corporate video right: More » -
Terms of Disservice
The 5 most laughable terms of service on the Net
Nobody reads terms of service agreements, those legal documents new users have to click a box to say they've read. And the truth is, they hardly matter to anybody but the cyber-rights-now crowd who get worked up by articles on Boing Boing, and the paranoid lawyers at large Web companies who want to avoid money-fishing lawsuits. But sometimes they go far beyond protecting corporate interests into la-la land. Did you know that when you download Google's new Chrome browser, you agree that any "content" you "submit, post or display" using the service — whether you own its copyright or not — gives Google a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute" it? Google's ambitions for Chrome are even larger than we thought; by the letter of this license, Google will own all information that flows through its browser. But Chrome's terms of service are just the latest in a long line of ludicrous legalese. More » -
acquisitions
Turns out FriendFeed has clones and that AOL acquired one
The deal isn't finalized yet, but AOL will acquire Colorado-based startup SocialThing, News.com reports. Best known for a raging party it threw at this year's South By Southwest conference, SocialThing also aggregates an Internet user's feeds and activity from sites like Flickr and Twitter. If that sounds familiar, its because you've subjected yourself to the ramblings of people like Jason Calacanis, Michael Arrington or Robert Scoble who use a similar service called FriendFeed and talk about it a lot. They talk about it a lot because they think its really popular, but the truth is that FriendFeed suggests them as new friends to every user who joins the site. A thought: Wouldn't it be funny if AOL bought SocialThing because AOL dealmakers read too much Scoble, Arrington and Calacanis and so they think FriendFeed is the new, new thing and rushed out to by its closest competitor? Don't put it past the bunch that paid $850 million for Bebo.
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Fri Jul 10
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