America Online

Revolution CEO Steve Case at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Kara Swisher in D8 on July 2, 2010 at 2:33 pm PT

Kara Swisher and Steve Case meet again onstage at the D8 Conference. They talk about the 25th anniversary of AOL and much more in this full session video.

Revolution CEO Steve Case at D8: AOL Could Come Back–Look What Happened to Apple

Peter Kafka in D8 on June 2, 2010 at 1:56 pm PT

Steve Case is most famous for building America Online, which became the Internet’s first mega-company, and for merging it with Time Warner, which became the worst corporate marriage in recent history. But AOL is 25 years old, and the AOL-Time Warner deal is a decade old. What has Steve Case been doing since then? Investing, in a lot of different stuff. Time to talk about old deals and new ones.

Why Will Google TV Be Any Different From WebTV? Or AOL TV? Or MSNTV? Or…

John Paczkowski in News on May 21, 2010 at 9:12 am PT

At its I/O developer conference Thursday in San Francisco, Google predicted it would “change the future of television” with GoogleTV, an effort to marry broadcast TV with the Web. And in comments about the announcement, the company’s executives hawked the new software and hardware bundle with similarly aggrandizing pronouncements.

Voices

Diller on AOL: No Thanks

Nat Worden, Reporter, Dow Jones & Co. in News on September 16, 2009 at 3:23 pm PT

Barry Diller, IAC’s chief executive, said Wednesday that he’s not interested in acquiring AOL after the Internet business is spun off from its parent company, Time Warner. “I have no interest in purchasing AOL, but there are kinds of alliances that are possible for us,” Diller said at an investor conference in New York. “Those maybe will happen, or maybe they won’t happen.”

Dear Tim: Here's a Tour of the It-Takes-a-Licking-but-Keeps-on-Ticking AOL Brand

Kara Swisher in News on July 28, 2009 at 12:02 am PT

What’s next for AOL? Reviving the “You’ve Got Mail!” motto? Or: “The Future. Now Available.”–set to music from “The Jetsons”? What about: “So easy to use, no wonder it’s #1!” Or maybe, it should just use a nice loooooooong busy signal as its calling card again? Well, it could happen, now that new CEO Tim Armstrong has fallen prey to the siren call of the AOL brand name, after years of seeing the company wander in the anything-but-the-AOL wilderness. Thus, he’s decided to try to welcome the prodigal brand back home, even as he prepares to spin it off in November from Time Warner. Uh-oh.

When GeoCities Grabbed the Web's Golden Ticket–A Trip Down Silicon-Valley-Has-No-Memory Lane

Kara Swisher in News on April 24, 2009 at 12:13 am PT

In Web years, BoomTown is now officially 143 years old. Why? Well, I was the one who got to write the big Page One piece in The Wall Street Journal after GeoCities was sold to Yahoo in January of 1999 for $5 billion in stock. GeoCities was, in its way, the Facebook of its time. But, instead of “friends,” its users were “homesteaders.” As Cher so eloquently sings: Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end. Except they did. Yahoo announced yesterday that it was closing the GeoCities unit down, part of new CEO Carol Bartz’s war against useless assets at the troubled company. But let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

True/Slant Tests Another Model Of Web Journalism

Walt Mossberg in Personal Technology on April 8, 2009 at 6:08 pm PT

True/Slant takes a novel approach to Web journalism with new forms of advertising and an effort to blend journalism and social networking.

Farewell to Mike Homer

Kara Swisher in News on February 1, 2009 at 4:12 pm PT

We all liked Mike. In fact, we all loved the pugnacious, energetic and restlessly entrepreneurial Silicon Valley exec. Sadly for those who knew him, Mike Homer died today at his home surrounded by family and friends, after a long battle with a severe illness. He was 50. Homer is survived by his wife and three young children: James, Jack and Lucy. His funeral is at Saint Raymond’s Catholic Church in Menlo Park on Thursday.