Parsons: Time Warner to hold onto AOL
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(InfoWorld) - Time Warner wants AOL to complete successfully its transition to an ad-supported business and isn't mulling "structural" changes to it, such as selling it or spinning it off, Time Warner Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons said Tuesday. "We're doing better than I had hoped [with AOL], but we still have a long way to go. We have to make sure we stay tightly focused there," Parsons said at a Goldman Sachs conference, responding to questions from a financial analyst. Time Warner's priority for AOL is to make sure the Internet subsidiary executes properly its transformation from a business based on subscriber fees for dial-up Internet access and takes full advantage of the opportunity in the vibrant online ad market, he said. Two key issues are to increase AOL's own ad inventory that it sells directly to clients as well as fortifying the ad platform that allows it to act as a broker and distributor between advertisers and third-party Web sites. "Those are the big executional challenges, given where we're coming from with AOL and the speed at which the industry is moving and the competition," said Parsons, whose appearance was webcast. "That's where the focus is, not on doing something structural with AOL." Parsons said that the dynamics of the online ad market are shifting toward this latter business of ad brokerage and distribution, whose margins are smaller compared with the direct-sales inventory. The reason for this change is that advertisers increasingly see value in the broader reach that ad networks provide as opposed to buying ad space in a specific site like a portal, he said. "It's kind of exciting in one sense, [and] it's a little daunting in another sense because it's all moving so fast, but we think we're in the middle of it, and we think we've got the right tools, management, and technologies to play aggressively," he said. After recently acquiring Advertising.comÂ and several other companies that specialize in behavioral targeting, video ads and mobile ads, AOL has a leading position in this segment of the market, he said. "I think we have the lead in that space right now, so it's ours to lose," he said. In fact, AOL can and should be a growth driver for Time Warner as long as it can increase its revenue at or above the growth clip forecast for the online ad market, Parsons said. That didn't happen in the second quarter, when AOL's online ad revenue grew 16 percent, leading some financial analysts to question AOL's ability to capitalize on the online ad opportunity. Currently, the U.S. online ad market has been growing its spending between 25 percent and 35 percent, according to reports from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Still, Parsons is optimistic about his Internet subsidiary, which this week announced thatÂ it plans to move its headquarters to New York City and that it has integrated its various ad networks into a single platform. This platform, called Platform A, meshes Advertising.com, behavioral targeting specialistÂ Tacoda, mobile ad unitÂ Third Screen Media, video ad specialistÂ Lightningcast, and ad serving unit AdTech. "Everything we're doing in AOL is around trying to create a platform that has broad reach, increase the amount of our own inventory, and then have [the tools] to optimize [the ads]," Parsons said.
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AOL, the Internet unit of media  conglomerate Time Warner Inc., on Monday extended its $900  million cash offer for Swedish online marketing company  TradeDoubler by several weeks to March 14.
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Wall Street is down on AOL Time Warner -- and worried about its moguls. Yet deeper in the ranks, a cadre of executives is working hard to bring the troubled colossus to life.
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Over the weekend, reports surfaced that Yahoo's new financial advisors want it to chase down a merger with AOL to counter Microsoft's multi-billion-dollar bid. But can AOL parent Time Warner afford Yahoo's financial freight?
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Time Warner Inc.  on Wednesday  said its AOL unit will no longer charge high-speed Internet  users for e-mail and other Web services in a gambit to attract  more viewers and boost online advertising.
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By MATT MOORE  FRANKFURT, Germany - Time Warner Inc. is giving up its foothold in one of the fastest-growing markets for broadband Internet access with a deal to sell AOL Germany's Internet access business to Telecom Italia SpA for about $870 million.
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As an ad medium, America Online has struggled to compete with rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN. But nine-month AOL Me-dia Networks president Michael J. Kelly declares the Time Warner unit has turned the corner--and some advertisers and agencies agree.
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Time Warner Inc. TWX.N and Comcast  Corp. CMCSA.OQ said on Monday they had agreed to a pact  giving Comcast an option to cut its interest in Time Warner  Cable Inc. in exchange for stock in a Time Warner subsidiary  that will hold cable systems and cash.
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The publishing giant won't sell or spin off AOL, but more online ads are in its future.
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On Wednesday, Time Warner said it will split off AOL's remaining dial-up business.
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Time Warner&#39;s (TWX:NYSE - news - research) America Online division reportedly plans to cut 700 jobs next month in a concession to declining subscription rates at its flagship Internet unit.
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NEW YORK/PHOENIX  - America Online, cable networks  and publishing are expected to lead 2005 revenue and profit  growth at parent Time Warner Inc._TWX.N, an executive said on  Tuesday.
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Time Warner Inc.&#039;s  AOL unit is  considering offering its services, except for Internet access,  free of charge to anyone with a high-speed connection, a source  familiar with the plans said on Thursday.
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Time Warner is close to settling a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into accounting at America Online, a person close to the negotiations said yesterday.
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Time Warner Inc.&#039;s AOL LLC online unit is considering giving away more of its services, including e-mail, to customers who already have a high-speed Internet connection, a person familiar with the discussions said Thursday.
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Time Warner Inc's  AOL said on  Tuesday it has purchased buy.at, an online affiliate marketing  network, as part of a strategy to bolster its Internet  advertising operations.
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Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday that it is creating a $500 million reserve in response to the federal investigations of its America Online unit and that it also will restate AOL Europe's financial results for 2000 and 2001.  -The Washington Post