Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

AOL Mulling Breakup, Yahoo Merger?

Geoff Duncan
By

The will-they-or-won’t-they dance between AOL and Yahoo seems to be getting more complicated, with Reuters reporting that AOL is considering a “complicated series of transactions” that will see the company casting off its long-moribund dial-up business and merge its content and advertising based businesses with rival Yahoo. As with most rumors surrounding the combination of the two companies, some industry watchers believe the whole notion is nonsense, noting AOL’s businesses don’t offer a great deal that Yahoo doesn’t already have. However, others note that AOL does control a significant content network of well-trafficked sites—including the likes of Engadget and TechCrunch—and that if AOL had Yahoo backing its advertising business, it could more easily shed its lingering dial-up access business.,

Reuters characterizes the plan as in “exploratory stages” and says Yahoo has not been approached about the idea. The report is the latest development since AOL reportedly hired new financial advisors to explore strategic options for the company.

Related Videos

AOL has previously considered spinning off its dial-up business: in 2008, reports had U.S. ISP Earthlink considering acquiring AOL’s dial-up access business part of a broader move to combine dial-up business of formerly-mighty dial-up Internet access providers. AOL has been interested in getting rid of its dial-up business for some time: although AOL was once the largest Internet access provider in the United States, the dial-up access business has been in decline for some time as users switch to broadband offerings, and AOL has been working to recast itself as a media and advertising company rather than an Internet access provider.

AOL has declined to comment on the report, and sources within Yahoo have repeatedly indicated the company is not looking for any proposals from AOL. Previous reports of potential mergers with Yahoo have hinged on the company selling its interest in its Asian businesses, including Yahoo Japan and its 40 percent stake in China’s Alibaba group. Despite frictions with Alibaba, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has indicates Yahoo has no plans to sell off its Alibaba stake.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Microsoft is slowly lifting Bing Chat’s restrictive turn limits
Microsoft Edge browser showing Bing Chat on an iPhone.

Microsoft has upped the chat turn limit on its Bing Chat service yet again, now allowing 120 daily turns (10 per session), according to Yusuf Mehdi, consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft. The increase comes on the heels of some unhinged responses Bing Chat generated due to high turn limits its in public debut. This the second time in the past week or so that Microsoft has raised turn limits on Bing Chat.

The brand has been making frequent tweaks to Bing Chat. Most recently, it increased the daily turn limit from 60 turns a day to 100 turns in a major update that rolled out on February 24. When Bing Chat was still in its public preview earlier in February, it supported 50 daily turns, which was quickly bumped up to 60 daily turns due to user interest.

Read more
Google missed big chance with ChatGPT-like tech, report claims
Google Logo

Google missed a golden opportunity to lead the way with its own ChatGPT-like chatbot technology tool two years ago, but an overly cautious attitude from those at the top prevented the company from releasing it, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday.

The two Google researchers who created the powerful conversational AI technology reportedly told colleagues at the time that their creation could revolutionize how people searched on the internet and worked with computers.

Read more
5 things I love in the Google Docs redesign
Google Workspace in Firefox on a Windows laptop.

Google is refreshing the look of Google Docs, Slides, Drive, and Sheets. The changes are happening across the board for Google Workspace subscribers and free personal accounts. I love that we all get to enjoy the changes, and there are five things, in particular, that really stand out to me as significant improvements.

This is a continuation of the Material Design 3 updates to Gmail last year. If you are happy with how Gmail looks, you’ll probably enjoy the new Docs as well.
Subtle color adds structure

Read more