Monday, February 07, 2011

AOL Is Buying HuffPo!

....Those of us who remember The End Of The Internet As We Knew It, when AOL opened the floodgates and a zillion AOL users came tumbling onto Usenet, e-mail and ftping, may view this as an example of birds of a feather flocking together.

Closer examination finds a quickly-sinking AOL grasping at any lifeline. Swim, Arianna, swim! --Or not.

I'll pop popcorn.
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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2011 at 8:10 AM

    What gets me is that ABC News is running the story as:
    "AOL to buy Huffington Post news site for $315M"
    Who in their right mind would call Huffington Post a NEWS site?
    Mycroft

    ReplyDelete
  2. ViolentIndifferenceFebruary 7, 2011 at 9:06 AM

    *munch munch* More butter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fuzzy CurmudgeonFebruary 7, 2011 at 11:44 AM

    Better 'n pro wrestling!

    ReplyDelete
  4. StretchFebruary 7, 2011 at 11:48 AM

    $315 Million?!?!?
    That's Zimbabwean dollars, right?
    U.S. dollars? NFW!
    P. T. Barnum must be smiling.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DrangFebruary 7, 2011 at 12:41 PM

    Mycroft: Who in their right mind would call MSNBC a news site?

    ReplyDelete
  6. StrangerFebruary 7, 2011 at 8:12 PM

    Well, from a businessman's standpoint; Arianna will come out well, 300 mil, less taxes, 140 mil remaining, to be split however. She will not miss any meals in her declining years.

    But from AOL shareholders standpoint; not so much. Realistically, 15 mil/annum Return on Investment: 20 years to return purchase cost, another ten to twenty to recoup interest.

    That's a long time with no profit in a business that changes as rapidly as AOL's does. Or a business that depends on a fickle public as much as HuffPo does.

    HuffPo is less Arianna than the unpaid bloggers. Like our idiot pal Helmke. Will they keep on blogging for nit when Arianna is getting the big bux? Remains to be seen, probably negative.

    I could go on of course, but it is a one sided deal. The sort of deal a company seeing Chapter 11 in its future if it does not do something quickly - and anything is better than nothing. Except that deal is apt to be nothing for the ones who count. The seniors, widows, and orphans who hold stock.

    Stranger

    ReplyDelete
  7. DrangFebruary 7, 2011 at 8:12 PM

    Come to think of it, who in their right mind would suggest that MSNBC is in it's right mind?

    Bet if you looked real hard you'd find someone who still maintains her AOL email address...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Roberta XFebruary 7, 2011 at 9:25 PM

    DW: tsk!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2011 at 10:08 PM

    Popcorn please...

    And who is AOL again?

    A$$hats Outta Luck??

    ReplyDelete
  10. GuardDuckFebruary 8, 2011 at 11:24 PM

    Ancient Aol spending that kind of money on that kind of thing brings to mind a retiree dropping her life savings on a scam green technology futures "investment".

    Except I would feel sorry for the old lady.

    ReplyDelete

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