How the Mightly Fall

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I was never an AOL user or subscriber, but was aware of their size and reach in the early days of the Internet. Unfortunately - at least for AOL - with the explosion in high speed data access, and the proliferation of search and content (news, video, blogs and more), AOL hasn't been able to keep pace. Probably their only remaining strong property is AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and its' large user-base.

Slow March to AOL's Funeral Continues: Split in Two - ReadWriteWeb

According to a statement by Time Warner, AOL will be split into two separate businesses: advertising and access. Overall, revenues from its AOL division declined 16% to $1.1 billion last year. Most importantly, subscription revenue from its dial-up services dropped by 29%, especially after AOL started to offer more of its products for free. The only bright spot for AOL was that its advertising sales grew by 2%. Even there, though, the decline in users on sites in the AOL network put a dent into the otherwise relatively positive results.

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