AOL and Time Warner Split – FINALLY!

I was never a big fan of this merger back in 2001. It just didn’t seem right. You didn’t need to be a M&A expert to know this would not have worked.

I have been an AOL subscriber since 1990. I remember using AOL v1 over dial up. The glory days of chat rooms and email. When you would get diskettes in the mail for an upgrade. AOL has been good to me.

This week, Time Warner Inc. said that it will finally split off AOL, fully unwinding the disastrous 2001 deal that joined both powerhouses.

My how times have changed. For those of us in tech we knew this would not have been a good marriage.

That was then and this is now. What is ahead for Tim Armstrong, former Google exec, and the man that must helm the ship. Well he will have to rebuild the AOL brand. Rebuild a company that has suffered from staff turnover, internal squabbling, a major decline in subscribers, and a decline in ad sales. And he has to face the juggernaut that is Google and new kids on the block like Bing and Twitter.

The task ahead will not be easy. Only time will tell if AOL will survive in the coming years.