AOL Finds Role Model: Apple
December 7, 2009
Short honk: This International Business Times’s article “AOL CEO Looks to Apple for Turnaround” is not about search. It struck me as somewhat unusual. I have been out of the country for a week and I am trying to readapt to the American business scene. Apple is a hardware company that has used software to lock in customers. AOL is an online company which seems to have been the inspiration for Yahoo. The phrase that caught my attention was:
Armstrong, a former Google Inc executive, has used Apple’s experience to create his own plan for a turnaround which he sums up in the report as: “New Products and services that people find necessary.” AOL Inc., which dominated the online experience for many computer users in the mid to late 1990s, suffered as customers migrated from its dial-up online service to Internet service providers.
Yikes! Will AOL try to get into the hardware business like Barnes & Noble and TechCrunch? Must have information services are those that make money for greed crazed MBAs on Wall Street, doctors trying to save a child’s life, and lawyers who want to win the big one so a larger yacht can be purchased. AOL is a precursor of Yahoo.
The Associated Press reported in “AOL Ends Ties with Time Warner” that AOL is an “independent company.” Sink or swim time.
I think the former Googler may want to hunt for another role model. A good place to start is with the search experience for AOL users. Then go from there to monetization. I am not sure Love.com will do it for me. Just my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, December 7, 2009
Oyez, oyez, Securities & Exchange Commission. I know you are ever vigilant, tireless in your scrutiny of publicly traded companies, and working on nights and weekends to get the economy righted. Please, take time to accept my admission that I wrote this news item without compensation, inducements, kick backs, promises for future considerations, free travel in corporate aircraft, paid vacations, meals at the Willard Hotel, or any other type of compensatory action. Just like you guys because you are my role models.
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