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Aol is at it again. It is busy reorganizing and re-inventing itself while the world sits on the sidelines wondering where the whole thing is going to land. At least the dial-up business is going to be tucked away into another area of the company so we don’t have to watch that dry up and wither as well.
According to Bloomberg
AOL Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong plans to reorganize the company to combine its dial-up Internet access business with its Web services, including AOL Instant Messenger.
The new AOL services group would be one of four business units to be created under the new structure, Armstrong said yesterday in an interview. The details will be presented to employees on Dec. 14, before the plan takes effect in January. The other three divisions will consist of advertising, local services and the Huffington Post media group, he said.
Aol is an enigma wrapped in a puzzle while residing in a Rubik’s cube. No one can seem to figure out exactly what they are or when they might discover it themselves. They, along with Yahoo!, are remnants of the old guard of the Internet that has had trouble adapting to the rapid change the space has experienced over the past several years.
Aol has placed an emphasis on local with Patch but how many of you are reading a local Patch for your local news? Please let us know!
And then, of course, there was the acquisition of the online queen of using bloggers to make a fortune, Arianna Huffington. Could it finally end up that the real value of Aol is because they own HuffPo? What about TechCrunch? Can these properties be enough to help save the flagging company? Not likely. Time will tell but that is a tall order for anyone.
Armstrong did say
AOL has no plans to sell or spin off any part of its business, Armstrong said. In the coming months, the New York- based company (AOL)’s various offerings, including e-mail and videos, will be more closely tied together and targeted to individual users, he said.
Ahem, Tim? Google is already doing this with the rest of the known world so you may want to try something else.
So how are you using Aol these days? What Aol sites aside from TechCrunch and HuffPo do you frequent? What do you think the future holds for the company?
