AOL's Falco: Yes, We Might Merge With Yahoo; No, I Can't Say How Many Of You Will Be Fired
Dear AOL colleagues,
I’m sure you’ve read some of the recent news speculating about potential AOL partnerships. While the company can’t comment on any discussions at this time, I'd like to provide some perspective on the industry and AOL's position in the market.
It's clear that the industry is in a state of extreme flux. Each day brings new rumored combinations of companies. But what's not surprising is AOL's appeal in this rapidly changing environment. The market is recognizing the value of what we’ve built together over the past year and a half, as we've shifted from a subscription model to an advertising-supported business. It's a remarkable transition that is gaining momentum with each passing week. Our focus on capturing growth in three key areas – publishing, advertising and social media – is beginning to pay off.
In publishing – which includes Programming, Products and Platforms – our focus has been on growing audience size and engagement. The results have been very encouraging. In February, AOL had its fifth consecutive month of growth, with page views up 16% over the same period in 2007. Thirteen of AOL’s content sites – such as Music, Television, News, Money & Finance and Celebrity – rank in the top 5 in their respective areas. Our rejuvenated Programming and Products appeal to people who now roam widely for what they want on the Web and align more closely with the kinds of passionate audiences marketers need to reach. The result is that AOL is now attracting a younger, more engaged and more valuable audience than ever before.
In advertising, we're focused on building the most effective and efficient marketplace for buying and selling digital advertising. Platform-A combines some of the strongest assets in the digital advertising business into a unified solution for marketers to build their brands and publishers to monetize their content. By integrating the reach of Advertising.com with the relevance of our industry-leading targeting technologies and the richness of AOL's content network, Platform-A will connect marketers to their audiences with engagement, efficiency and ease. Delivering on this means we need to move even more quickly to integrate the Platform-A companies into a seamless organization. In the three weeks since her appointment, Lynda Clarizio has moved quickly to announce the formation of one aligned sales organization that will have the ability to sell advertising solutions across Platform-A, supported by vertical teams focused on our content areas and product teams focused on selling individual products. To make it easier for advertisers and agencies to work with us, we now will be offering the ability to buy media across Platform-A with one contact and through one sales force.
In the social media area, we're focused on empowering a truly social Web with programming and tools that help connect people, cultures and lifestyles around the world. Bebo, together with AIM and ICQ, will create a social media network reaching 80 million people worldwide. This is a young and fast-growing market with huge potential. But despite drawing large, engaged audiences, other social networks have not been able to make the experiences relevant to users and marketers alike. Our opportunity involves integrating social media with our publishing and advertising networks to create more relevant content for the Web audience and more relevant marketing for advertisers. While the Bebo deal hasn’t closed yet, I’m looking forward to sharing more about the many opportunities I believe exist for Bebo in combination with some of AOL’s most exciting assets.
Our collective rebuild of AOL over the past year and a half has positioned the company to prosper in this dynamic market. We know that strong, profitable companies have more control over their own fate. We still have more work to do toward this end. So I want to ask you today to stay focused on the work at hand: continuing our transformation of AOL into a global advertising-supported Web business.
Randy
See Also:
Microsoft-News Corp-Yahoo? We Hate It
Jerry Strikes Back: AOL-Yahoo in Advanced Merger Talks
On the flip side, all the YAHOOs whom I've been speaking with are saying a whole different story about their company. these guys I
talked with are working for yahoo in different countries even,
different divisions, etc, all spoke freely to me, & most significantly
all spoke very highly of the company, they all really believed in
Yahoo, the projects they were working in, they all felt yahoo has a
very strong community, even while at the same time admitting they had
cathching up to do with google, but were fairly confident that this
was being addressed properly.
AIM and ICQ both have (or had) huge user bases, so not inconceivable. But would be good to know.
...hope they got distracted!
But agree--most companies are now publishing companywide internal emails straight to SEC, under assumption that they are basically public communications.
Henry, notice that CRM has (I think) almost doubled their Yahoo position. I figured you'd have commented by now, unless you have and I missed it.
What is your source, Joe? Linkable?
Reuters, Yahoo Finance (YHOO), right next to the rattlesnake.
I regret the error. It was CRM's unit, Capital World Investors.
and google is gandalf
that makes yahoo aragorn
and aol is gimli the dwarf
am i right?
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINWNAS740220080410?rpc=44
Again, I regret the error. It was an honest overlooking.
Too, I am the one and the only "joeblow" and I regret that Mrs. joeblow posted me as "joe blow."
Now, Henry... please put some work in trying to figure out how Yaahole would be structured.
Would they plan a dutch tender for the, quote: "billions of shares" (end quote) that are suggested to be purchased with either contributed or borrowed cash?
I expect that any number of banks would be falling over themselves ass-backwards to loan MSFT or MSFT/NWS any amount they wanted to make the deal all cash if they wanted to, and practically as high as they wanted to, but... what about AOL/TW?... They have the same credit?
I think YHOO didn't trade up as much today as it might've if it were anticipated that they'd bid middle-30s for enough of the shares to stabilize a bid in that range.
What do you think?
p.s. Nothing personal on the Rattlesnake... just havin' fun.
You must be a clock puncher, because everyone I know there making over $100k yr is polishing up their linkedin network, being very nice to vendors and partners, etc and throwing their resume to everyone they trust to get anywhere but where they are.
This is across people in advertising, mail, etc...
No one knows what direction is up, and people working on long term tasks dont even think the company will exist by projected deliverable dates..
They know what could be done to fix things, but the handful of execs are in a bubble with no idea of what is going on...
My guess is the execs are using this to tighten up change in control provisions for generous severance and bonus plans should something go down...
2 - 2 = 0; does not equal 4, let alone 5.
And besides, that Google deal? Yahoo!'s own pages say it all:
"It doesn't make a lot of sense for Yahoo to make an announcement like this when everyone knows a long-term relationship (with Google) can't happen," Kessler said. "It strikes me as somewhat desperate."
In fact, it's an understatement. Nevermind the regulators. Google has been killing them for years. And now that MS can seirously have a chance at saving its skin? These masochists go back to sleep with the enemy.
Then again, this is all a ruse to get MS to raise its bid, make no mistake about it. So far, they're not buying it.
(And one of the probs for the surviving "content" business is that AOL subs still provide the majority of the pageviews).
All of which is to say...it can probably be done, but certainly not easy or clean.
If Yahoo do conclude a merger with AOL the whole will be worth less than Y alone today, within 18 months. That's the special X AOL factor. They've halved AOL's value since the Google participation. They can do it again for a combined Yahoo/AOL. Y shareholders would be bananas not to bite Ballmer's hand off if he goes $1 more.
Ron, is that you? How many times have I told you to stay out of the chat rooms and message boards - all you do is anger people.
btw, look everyone - i've learned how to post on a message board! And I'm really getting the hang of this email thing! Did you see my email today? Wasn't it great?
This Internets is really amazing. It's nothing like TV.
"as we've shifted from a subscription model to an advertising-supported business. " Now if you were Jon Miller wouldn't you be pissed that a no brain like Randy would take credit for something he had no part of. In fact AOL had transitioned to an ad supported business months before Jeff stabbed Miller in the back, (hey Jeff remember the day you came down to Dulles, sat on stage with Miller and told the top execs what a great job he was doing...it was the day before you screwed him by hiring Randy and leaking it to the NY Times instead of having the stones to call Miller and tell him), if anyone has a spare spine please send it to Bewkes.
If page views are so up....why is revenue so down?
I think the charade has gone on too long. Bewkes screwed the pooch, put his boy Ron in charge, Ron discovered that even though he believed he knew everything, he actually knew everything about not knowing anything. Randy is just the grey ghost, no one knows what he does, or why...he does...whatever...he does. If Yahoo merged with AOL they would have to be stupid, there's nothing left.
HA HA HA, yeah right, getting help from IC is a JOKE @ AOL....LOL. They're probably the people sending the emails!
In a nutshell, Time Warner wants to put AOL up for a quick & fast adoption!
It is no secret that Time Warner and AOL have an "estranged" relationship. However, Time Warner is making great strides with reducing headcount of the over paid folks who were there only to collect a pay-check.
>You must be a clock puncher,
@hmmmm
you must be a bootlicking ass-kisser.
Thoughts?
CONFIRMED!
But then again, most recently two offenders FRANK AMBROSE, SVP and his "project manager"....(((forgot her name))) were booted out for their "unprofessional behavior" behind closed doors for long periods of time, LOL
Frank is a handsome dude and his "project manager" was Hot! but unfortunately Frank could not keep his little peeter in his pants, LOL.
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