Disney doesn't want AOL either

Disney has joined the list of companies not interested in AOL, as chief executive Robert Iger yesterday put his rejection on the table. Iger said Disney was considering technology acquistions, but AOL was not one of them. Time Warner has been looking for a home for the internet access part of AOL since February, while keeping …

[Eddie Johnson]

Wow, imagine that...

Once they strip out the most valuable part of the business, no one wants to buy the gutted carcass! Its time to face it guys, those three letters are toxic. Its almost time to remove A, O and L from the alphabet, or at least get a court order that bans them from assembling together in public.

As an email address its worthless, their delivery is laughably unreliable, and all your emails start out with a score of Delete-1 before you even say "stock market" in the body.

Giving someone your AOL email address is the online equivalent of showing up somewhere wearing a T-shirt that says "I'm With Stupid" where the arrow points at your face.

[Ralph B]

On the record

In the interests of getting all this settled as speedily as possible, I just want to put it on the record that I am not interested in buying AOL either.

Come on the rest of you, form an orderly line ...

[TrixyB]

@Eddie Johnson

Brilliant - I couldn't of put it better myself :)

[Paul]

@Eddie Johnson

Spot on!

The only hope for AOL's internet access division is that their remaining customer base is too scared to change, or too stupid to realize that better access can be had for much less money, and without the stinking boat anchor that is their software suite.

I'm sure most potential buyers have figured out that a business plan depending largely on consumers remaining stupid and clueless doesn't add up as well as you'd expect it to.

Though I wonder, when they're gone, what we'll use for coasters (/me looks over at the AOL "one month free" CD my Pepsi Max is parked on right now).

[John]

NetZero?

Maybe NetZero will buy them up. Give it 'nother month and TW will be paying someone to cart it off the lot. ;)

Cheers,

John

[Silentmaster101]

@paul

dont worry i think there is a large enough stockpile of them that you will have enough for decades to come.

[Morely Dotes]

@ Paul

"I'm sure most potential buyers have figured out that a business plan depending largely on consumers remaining stupid and clueless doesn't add up as well as you'd expect it to."

It works for Microsoft. Of course, AOL's software is nowhere near as good as Microsoft's...

[Chad H.]

I'll buy AOL!

Lets see.. .I'm buying Tiscalli for 2 crayons and some milk... I'm sure I can find something around here that's fair value for AOL... Two paracetamol Tablets and some Belly Button lint perhaps?

[Greg]

This is a happy moment for me

AOL has needed to die for years. Perhaps now it finally will, in the way it deserves - a long, drawn out, lingering, painful death. I hope it gets bought out just to save the number of jobs involved, but then I also hope that once the customer base has been integrated, AOL itself is obliterated.

A gravestone for Connie? Let's build her a pyre.

[Anonymous Coward]

why would any one want aol in first place?

ok who is going to pay ME to take AOL of their hands...serious replies and offers only!

[David]

Hey I got this AOL thingy

Hey I got this AOL disc thingy. Can I use it to download the Internet and do I put it on my Record Player?

[Tony Starks]

All of AOL would be worth buying

The only reason Time Warner can't find a buyer is because they are keeping the valuable parts of AOL (The web portal and add revenues) and selling the dial up internet access only - the part that is slowly dying.

Someone else mentioned it - but NetZero AOL's subscriber base of dial up internet customers is a pretty good idea. NetZero manages to make money selling $10 a month dial up internet access and buying AOL's dial up service would give them what - nearly another 20 million subscribers?

I personally still give AOL a few bucks. I like having dial up access for when the damn cable goes out or I'm on vacation in the remote places my family likes going. When the cell phone companies have rolled out 3G nationwide at a reasonable price then I will quit paying both the cable company and AOL.

Tony

[Thomas Smith]

Unwanted AOL

Agreeing to be acquired by AOL is the latest in a series of idiotic mistakes made by Time Warner. Suspect that the reason was due to the change of corporate ownership clause in Levin's contract.

Anyway, AOL has from the start been considered worth more than it was. Never liked it.

Time Inc made mostly illogical decisions up until Henry Luce was no longer around. Some of its ill fated acquisitions included Temple Industries, Inland, and Warner. It has been willing to make equal illogical decisions to get rid of things too. The latest is the plan to get rid of Time Warner Cable, which the company invested billions to acquire the systems and billions to upgrade TWC into one of the most advanced. Now it is getting rid of it to meet the short term interest of short term stockholders.

[James Prior]

AOL Internet

I assume it's just dial-up they are trying to get rid of this time around?

I only say that because they already off-loaded broadband customers some time ago. I can only assume that at the time no one wanted to take both.

Does anyone think that part of the deal was that it had to be kept branded as AOL? Otherwise TalkTalk would suddenly have a whole load of extra users on the books.