Tag archive: aol

The maneuvering to take control of Yahoo is now underway: according to Bloomberg, private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, in conjunction with Microsoft, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and venture capital firm Andreesson Horowitz have reportedly made a bid to acquire as much as 15 percent of Yahoo for some $16.60 a share, a value about 6 percent higher than Yahoo's stock price at the close of markets on Tuesday. In all, the… Read More

The end of the Internet as we know it may be right around the corner — but not if the Mozilla Foundation has anything to say about it. The maker of Firefox, a non-profit organization, has launched a campaign to help block the passage of both the 'Stop Online Piracy Act' (SOPA) and the 'Protect IP Act' (PIPA), each of which may soon go up for a vote in Congress. Those who join the campaign are asked to call their senators… Read More

Nine giants of the Internet — Google, eBAy, AOL, Facebook, Yahoo, Zynga, LinkedIn, Mozilla and Twitter — placed a full-page ad in The New York Times as part of their efforts to fight back against the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act.” Update: A Google spokesperson has just informed us that, in addition to The New York Times, this ad ran in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the… Read More

Despite a rise in display advertising revenue, AOL posted a 6 percent drop in total revenue during the third quarter of 2011, the company announced today. The company's total revenue came in at $531.7 million, which is still higher than a consensus of some Wall Street analysts, which estimated AOL would earn $524 million in revenue. AOL boasts that the drop in revenue was the lowest decline in five years. AOL profits dropped $2.6 million,… Read More

Just a month after Yahoo's board of directors summarily kicked CEO Carol Bartz to the curb, rumors are swirling that the once-mighty Internet company is gearing up for a sale. Reports have Yahoo engaging Goldman Sachs and Allen & Company to do due diligence and gather financial information together in preparation, and Reuters has reported Microsoft is already circling—although Bloomberg refutes it. Yahoo has been struggling since… Read More

AOL is reportedly interested in getting into the social networking game and resurrecting its struggling MapQuest platform to do so. MapQuest, once the direction site of choice in its hay day, has since been bested by Google Maps and is seeing increasing competition from Bing Maps—largely in thanks to their mobile presence. But now, AOL is rumored to plan a social network around the directions site, pairing geo-social and local together. But will… Read More

According to an updated study released earlier today by Nielson, Facebook is still eats up the most amount of time for a typical Web user. Clocking in at 7 hours and 45 minutes, the average person spends that much time each month wandering though endless status updates, leaving comments on new media from friends and playing social games like Zynga's CityVille. However, Facebook is still number two when it comes to the total Internet… Read More

In an attempt to beat back Google's Goliath ad business, AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have agreed to begin selling advertising inventory on each other's websites, reports AllThingsD's Peter Kafka. The three companies have not yet commented on the ad “pact.” The news follows a dinner meeting last in New York City between executives from AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo! during which the trio explained the new deal to a group of… Read More

Former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s position as boardmember was incredibly short-lived. After less than a week in her new role with the company, Bartz has resigned and cut her ties with Yahoo, a business she’s had more than a few criticisms of since her initial departure. And in the midst of Bartz’s parting moments with Yahoo is new fire to the AOL merger or acquisition rumors. Yes, those same ones that have stalked both companies for some four… Read More

By now you’ve heard that something unpleasant has been going on over at AOL. Earlier this summer when we first caught wind of TechCrunch founder and co-editor Michael Arrington’s speculated angel investment fund to-be, we thought it sounded like a potential problem. You’d imagine that writing about startups while simultaneously managing their careers could present a conflict of interest – and you’d be right. Arrington announced Crunchfund last… Read More

Rumors regarding Yahoo’s unstable footing have plagued the company for some time now. With the “leadership reorganization” (read: The canning of Carol Bartz) now behind it, Yahoo has found itself on some very precarious ground. Its next move in the industry arena will be heavily scrutinized, which is why the company is likely weighing its options very, very carefully. Who will replace Bartz? First and foremost, Yahoo needs a new CEO. Bartz has… Read More

Last week we reported that TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington was leaving the site to start a venture capital fund named Crunchfund. At that time it was reported that Arrington will most likely remain as an employee of the blog, but no longer retain any editorial power. This was confirmed by Arriana Huffington who is the editor and chief for all of AOL’s blogs, when she said that Arrington will no longer report to her. Since Friday there have… Read More

TechCrunch founder and co-editor Michael Arrington has resigned from the popular website to launch a venture capital fund to invest in technology startups, reports Fortune. Arrington will reportedly remain with TechCrunch in a limited capacity, as an “occasional contributor.” Joining him in the fund, which will be called “CrunchFund,” will be Patrick Gallagher of VantagePoint Venture Partners. Fortune reports that… Read More

AOL has been in a state of flux for awhile now, attempting to keep its brand alive with mergers and new platforms. But nothing’s been able to stick, and profits and subscriptions haven’t been anything to brag to investors about. This is enough cause for speculation regarding a sale or yet another HuffPo sized merger – especially given AdWeek’s (the site shares a building with AOL) inside scoop that AOL is meeting with a prestigious M&A… Read More

On top of a particularly difficult week, AOL's postmaster.aol.com website was hacked Saturday afternoon by someone who goes by the name “HodLuM.” The site was slightly defaced with a message from the hacker. “AOL S3RV3RZ ROOT3D BY HODLUM LOLZ!,” the message read. AOL finally discovered the hack, and fixed the page between two and four hours after evidence of the breach was posted to Reddit.com. There are a number… Read More