[opendtv] Re: News: How the AOL-Time Warner Merger Went So Wrong
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:33:05 -0500
At 8:59 AM -0500 1/11/10, Tom Barry wrote:
At the time of the merger many of us in the computer business were
already calling AOL "Internet with training wheels". The writing was on
the wall for the decline in dial-up access. I assume Mr. Case also knew
that and his team basically just had a better crystal ball about how
overinflated the AOL stock price really was. So they hired an
investment bank and made a deal with TW at that ridiculously high
price. Mr. Levin and TW had much less understanding of where things
were going with the Internet and I believe got sold some Internet swamp
land, with a bridge thrown in.
Dial-up access was only part of the problem. AOL was designed in part
as a walled garden, and Case and company had some success in locking
up content deals that could only be accessed via AOL. The Internet
blew that model out of the water, just as it helped to blow Time
Warners Full Service Network ideas out of the water. Content
providers WERE NOT interested in re-authoring their stuff to the
proprietary standards of each walled garden. HTML proved to be the
authoring language for everyone.
What is bizarre is that Case was outspoken about the fact that cable
walled e-commerce gardens were not going to work. But the AOL content
model was not sustainable either.
Regards
Craig
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