Change Is Tough, but Necessary, AOL Chief Says
255533
NEW YORK -- When AOL chief executive Randy Falco was the No. 2 at NBC for all those years, he liked to call himself "the conductor": He made the trains run on time.
231763
Struggling financial site gets redesign, new functions but faces tough competition.
751829
Time Warner plans to split up the Internet access and audience businesses of its AOL segment to run them each independently, Time Warner CEO and President Jeff Bewkes revealed Wednesday.The move comes as little surprise, as former CEO Dick Parsons acknowledged in September that Time Warner would at some point divest itself from the AOL access business, though he made no commitment to do so at the time.On Bewkes&#39; first quarterly financial conference call Wednesday since taking his position as CEO on Jan. 1, he said Time Warner&#39;s plans to split AOL&#39;s businesses will help hasten the segment&#39;s business-model transition from &quot;a declining ISP subscription business to a growing Internet ad business.&quot;&quot;This should significantly increase AOL&#39;s strategic options for each of these main business sectors,&quot; Bewkes said on a call to reveal Time Warner&#39;s fourth-quarter 2007 earnings. He made a distinction between AOL&#39;s for-fee Internet-access service and its ad-supported audience business, which includes AOL&#39;s online services and content.Bewkes did not give a specific timeline or other details for when and how the split will occur. AOL&#39;s Internet-access business, which still provides for-fee service, continues to decline in subscribers even as Bewkes noted that Time Warner has reduced operating expenses at AOL by &quot;well over a billion dollars.&quot;Still, even as AOL&#39;s goal is to become a viable online advertising competitor against Google, Yahoo and Microsoft -- the latter two of which may soon become a single and more formidable rival -- advertising revenue for AOL has been growing less than the industry average for several quarters.In the fourth quarter, ad revenue at AOL grew 18 percent, less than the current International Advertising Bureau&#39;s industry average of 25 percent. As a point of comparison, Google&#39;s ad revenue grew 51 percent in its fiscal fourth quarter.AOL&#39;s ad revenue growth was below industry average for both its 2007 second and third quarters as well. It grew 13 percent in the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, and 16 percent in the second quarter, which ended June 30. The industry average was around 26 percent for those time periods.Time Warner&#39;s financial results for the quarter overall met Wall Street expectations, but net income was down for the quarter. The company reported $1.03 billion, or $0.28 a share, for the fourth quarter, down from $1.75 billion, or $0.44, last year. However, the results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 were bolstered by an income-tax benefit as well as income from the sale of AOL Internet access businesses in the U.K. and France.Quarterly revenue rose 2.4 percent, from $12.34 billion in the year-ago quarter to $12.64 billion, reported Wednesday.Bewkes on Wednesday also outlined other cost-cutting and strategic measures that Time Warner plans to take to make the business run more effectively. The company&#39;s AOL business is not the only one that will be affected; the company also is considering reducing its investments in its Time Warner Cable business, he said.(Juan Carlos Perez in Miami contributed to this report.)
360114
By Anonymous  EDITORIAL  While all companies undergoing transitions suffer slings and arrows, it is fair to say that AOL has encountered a fusillade.
446494
Larry Dennison knows the importance of reinventing a company from time to time in the changing Internet sector.
671817
By ANICK JESDANUN  NEW YORK - Ted Leonsis, the AOL senior executive who helped steer his company's transition into a provider of free services supported by advertising, will step down from active management while continuing in an advisory capacity.
152648
For the most part, AOL's future plans are the same old story.
493530
By KELLY OLSEN  SEOUL, South Korea - News and information are reaching consumers in sometimes surprising ways, pushing providers to creatively adapt their output to address online demands, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley said Thursday.
44715
AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc, said  on Monday it will move its corporate headquarters to New York  City from Dulles, Virginia, amid a realignment of its  advertising business.
754808
Time Warner Inc  is working on splitting AOL's audience and access businesses and running the two as independent entities, Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes said on Wednesday.
213144
The chief executive of America Online unveiled a broad reorganization that cements his power and emphasizes a new strategy of taking on Yahoo as a free Web portal.
29994
NEW YORK -- Time Warner Inc.'s new CEO Jeff Bewkes laid out his vision for changes at the media conglomerate Wednesday, including dividing AOL's online access and advertising businesses and possibly spinning off the rest of the company's cable division.
497923
More changes are in the works for AOL's portals, including the launch of a new site.
265194
AOL will move its headquarters from Dulles, Va., next spring as tries to retool itself as an advertising company that competes with the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
686608
Several key executives at AOL announced today that they plan to leave the company, just days before new chief executive Randy Falco is expected to announce a major restructuring of the Internet company's leadership.
305310
Don't bury AOL. It's not dead yet.
426170
JUST IN Time Warner is "looking hard" at selling off the internet access portion of its AOL division over the next year to year and a half, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons said on Tuesday.