As I said months ago why is this company even trading publicly, who would want to own any shares of this company, they had their time way back when and will never have that same opportunity, ever!!!!!!!!! This stock is headed down into the single digits in due time. They have tried extremely hard to bring back their footing into this industry and have failed again and again, they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to catch up with social networking but none of it has worked. Either they will be bought out or file bankruptcy sometime in the next few years. Just to let everyone know, no company stays on top forever, AOL was number one a decade ago with over 20,000 employees and millions of subscribers, today the company struggles to hang on. What I am trying to say is that companies who are number one today can be forgotten in the years to come, aol is an example of just that. AOL 1Q profit slumps as ads, subscriptions wane AOL reports 1Q profit plunge as advertising and subscription revenue fall, sells ICQ ap Rachel Metz, AP Technology Writer, On Wednesday April 28, 2010, 2:49 pm EDT NEW YORK (AP) -- Very little went right for AOL Inc. in the first quarter as it cut way back on staff and tried to refocus its business. The Internet company said Wednesday that tumbling online advertising revenue, along with restructuring costs, led to a 58 percent drop in first-quarter net profit. AOL shares sank $3.66, or 13.1 percent, to $24.35 in afternoon trading. The company, which separated from Time Warner Inc. last year, earned $34.7 million, or 32 cents per share. This compares with $82.7 million, or 78 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue fell 23 percent to $664.3 million, missing analyst estimates for $679 million, according to Thomson Reuters. AOL struggled in both its traditional business and its newer ones. Its long-declining dial-up Internet service revenue fell 28 percent to $282.7 million, while its advertising revenue fell 19 percent to $354.3 million. The ad shortfalls came in both "display" ads, which include graphical online billboards, and search ads. AOL's results mark a sharp contrast from those of competitors Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., which indicated the online advertising market was emerging from a slump that lasted much of last year. Google's first-quarter revenue rose 23 percent, and Yahoo Inc.'s first-quarter revenue rose 1 percent. During an interview, CEO Tim Armstrong said the problems in advertising were "100 percent" due to AOL's staff cuts and other changes AOL made, including a reorganization of its domestic ad staff. The company cut about a third of its employees, or about 2,300 of its 6,900 workers, through a combination of layoffs and buyouts during the first three months of the year. The cuts leave AOL at less than a quarter of the size it was at its peak in 2004, when its staff numbered more than 20,000. "I'm pleased with the results from Q1," Armstrong said. "I would obviously love to have more ad revenue, but based on what we did it's what was expected and I think we were clear that was going to happen before the quarter." AOL also said Wednesday that it agreed to sell its ICQ instant messaging business for $187.5 million in cash to Russian Internet investor Digital Sky Technologies Ltd., which also owns a small stake in Facebook. AOL, then known as America Online, paid $287 million to buy Mirabilis Ltd., the Israeli company behind ICQ, in 1998. That deal also called for AOL to pay as much as $120 million more if Mirabilis met certain performance targets. ICQ has mostly been popular outside the U.S. in places where AOL doesn't have a big presence, Armstrong said during a conference call with financial analysts. The company said earlier this month that it plans to sell or close its social networking site Bebo, about two years after spending $850 million to acquire it. AOL Chief Financial Officer Artie Minson said the company expects to have a sale or shutdown of Bebo "wrapped up" by the end of May.
Welcome to 1996 http://web.archive.org/web/19961220154856/http://www.aol.com/ AOL's new $19.95 per month standard pricing offers unlimited access to the Internet and AOL's own services. In addition, AOL offers other plans to appeal to a broad range of consumers, including: -- Advanced payment programs of $14.95 per month for customers who pay in advance for two years and $17.95 per month for those who pay in advance for one year; -- A "bring-your-own-access" rate of $9.95 monthly that offers unlimited access to AOL's thousands of features to consumers who already have an Internet connection through school or work; -- A $4.95 light-usage plan that offers 3 hours of AOL monthly with each additional hour costing $2.50. America Online Networks is a division of America Online, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), based in Dulles, Virginia. America Online Networks oversees the America Online consumer online network, the world's most popular Internet online service, with more than 7 million members worldwide. AOL offers its subscribers a wide variety of services including electronic mail, conferencing, software, computing support, interactive magazines and newspapers, and online classes, as well as easy and affordable access to services of the Internet. Founded in 1985, AOL today has a global workforce of 5,500 people. Personal computer owners can obtain America Online software at major retailers and bookstores or by calling 1-800-827-6364.
For the same reason all companies go public - to enrich the executives and skim some off for the bankers. Maybe they can try to siphon out of aol one last time as it circles the drain - how about a merger with blockbuster? What's really surprising is that they make any money at all, and that they still do $282 million/qtr in dialup plans?! People still use that? Out of curiosity I tried to figure out the subscriber numbers using cost/month - I couldn't find a link to any prices on aol.com, which is just a clone of that awful mess on yahoo's front page. What a disaster, these people squandered such amazing resources.
Since my prediction has become right, I am predicting that this company will either be bought out around $5.00 a share or completely be gone in the next 5 years. Do not touch this stock, this company is in trouble, the stock is going to fall another 50% over the next 6-12 months, thats why it will be bought at $5.00 a share, thats if they get lucky. Do not put a dime into this stock and if you have sell it. AOL will never reinvent itself. AOL shares plunge to record low By Julianne Pepitone @CNNMoneyTech August 9, 2011: 5:08 PM ET AOL stock Click the chart for more on AOL stock. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The past few days have been a sob story for stocks, and AOL needs even more tissues than most. Early Tuesday, AOL (AOL) reported a surprise loss of 11 cents a share for the second quarter. Revenue fell compared to last year and came in below Wall Street estimates. AOL shares plunged almost 26% Tuesday, ending at a fresh record low of $11.19 a share, even as the broader market rallied from Monday's steep sell-off. The stock fell as low as $10.31 earlier in the session. CEO Tim Armstrong tried to put a good spin on things, focusing on the company's global ad revenue growth. Global ad sales rose 5% in the quarter that ended June 30 -- the first overall gain in that area since 2008 But that growth wasn't enough to offset AOL's declining revenue from its fading subscription business, which sells dial-up Internet access and other online services. AOL's total revenue came in at $542 million, down 8% from the same quarter last year. Investors and analysts focused on the display ad sector, which grew 14% compared to last year -- less than expected. International display revenue fell 10%, and search ad revenue also disappointed. Sluggishness in display ads has hit AOL's rivals, including Yahoo, but the lackluster AOL figures underscore the obstacles slowing down Armstrong's turnaround plan. AOL has been busy buying up companies and trying to shed its reputation as an outdated Internet portal. The splashiest purchase came earlier this year, when AOL unloaded 40% of its cash to buy The Huffington Post. Despite the reinvention efforts, investors continue to punish the stock. Shares are down almost 47% year-to-date, and last week they closed at what was then an all-time low. It's all a far cry from 2001, when then-powerhouse AOL took over Time Warner in 2001 for $111 billion. By late 2009 -- when Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) (the parent company of CNNMoney) spun off AOL and unwound what's now considered one of the worst mergers in history -- AOL was worth only $3 billion. By 2009, AOL's dial-up Internet subscriber base had dwindled, and it was merely an also-ran in Internet traffic and advertising -- behind competitors Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500). Armstrong, a former Googler, took the AOL helm in March 2009. As he buys up smaller companies, he's also deciding what content still fits into his vision for the new AOL. The company has been investing in sites like Patch, AOL's hyperlocal blog network, while unloading services including instant messenger ICQ. Much of the company's success will hinge on the HuffPo buy, though Armstrong has insisted that the move was "not a Hail Mary" -- that the company has a focused, cemented plan. But judging by the stock performance, investors remain skeptical. To top of page First Published: August 9, 2011: 12:40 PM ET