Time for a Sequel to AOL-Time Warner?
This isn’t a joke. The buzz from California is that it just may be time to try another AOL-Time Warner.
That $164 billion merger disaster defined a decade of thoughtless deal making, reckless ego and vaporous “synergy.”
But for Hollywood executives and bankers now toting their iPads like baby blankets, the new technology has brought them back to an old conversation about “content” and its distribution.
Just as cable-television upended the distribution of films and television, so too are increasingly mature digital platforms like 20 million-customer Netflix or even Google Inc.’s YouTube. As these platforms spar with cable-operators and media conglomerates for consumer attention, they are finding it increasingly necessary to differentiate themselves.
