AOL

It seems that AOL is getting ready to reclaim its position at the top of the list under the guidance of Tim Armstrong, the company’s new CEO. Mr Armstrong who is looking to take the company back to the top was previously working as President of Advertising Sales for Google. However, now his talents are being focused on helping the company make a comeback into the online world.

In a recent interview, Armstrong said that he was hopeful of turning AOL into the largest online display advertising seller and the biggest premium content creator on the internet. AOL’s new CEO has devised a five point strategy in order to achieve this aim. He has also planned to address the confidence crisis that he thinks the company is suffering from.

He said that the company had a choice to make. It could either choose to win quickly or lose slowly and it has chosen the former. AOL has fallen far behind ever since the introduction of Google and has suffered a number of problems which include extensive layoffs and brand name problems.

Regardless of the 38 percent drop in revenues the company has witnessed over the last two years, Armstrong hopes to re-unify the company and stabilise its rank. This, he plans on doing by streamlining potential internet deals and competing with Yahoo, Microsoft and Google for display ads directly. He already has content creation designs ready and is hopeful of producing video and written content that will make AOL appealing to companies with large advertising budgets.

AOL has recently acquired two companies specialising in local online media, as part of their broader strategy in rebuilding the position of the company in the fast growing online advertising market.

The acquisitions of the local online media companies, Going Inc and Patch Media Corp come at a time when Time Warner is aiming to split AOL into an independent company. Tim Armstrong, AOL’s Chief Executive who joined in April, is currently working on planning a new strategy and structure that focuses largely on local content.

Patch Media Corp operates websites and creates technologies that help local communities to publish information and news. Going Inc lets its users share information and other details about local events.

In a note to AOL employees, Mr Armstrong wrote that the two acquired companies will help AOL in building its local efforts, such as its mapping site MapQuest. Both the acquisitions are each priced at less than $10 million according to sources familiar with the deal.

AOL is currently stepping up its own efforts for expanding its online advertising business publishing premium content and focusing on communications with its instant messaging and email services. The company is also creating a new ventures business group for housing its acquisitions like social networking website Bebo, which it acquired last year.

AOL from Time Warner Inc has denied infringing any patents that are being held by Yahoo Inc and has also requested a federal court to rule the same.

The appeal is filed by AOL in the form of a declaratory relief seeking complaint that quotes the dispute between Quigo and Yahoo, calling it an ongoing dispute of intellectual property. Quigo is an online advertising company acquired by AOL in 2007 for a price of $340 million.

The complaint states that attorneys representing Yahoo have in emails and letters alleged that AOL and Quigo have infringed almost seven patents belonging to Yahoo over the past few years.

The complaint said that the attempts made by the parties for the negotiation of a settlement over the claims of Yahoo’s patent infringement had not been successful. The attempts made were marked until the 26th of March 2009.

When asked about the complaint, the spokesperson of AOL, Allie Burns said that her company did not believe in making comments on litigation that is pending.

Until recently, Yahoo and AOL had plans of creating a potential combination between the two which was instigated due to the failure of the bid made by Microsoft Corp to acquire Yahoo.

A new code of practise has been introduced by The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) that targets online advertising services. These services track the user’s habit of browsing and then displays personalised advertisements.

Not only companies like Microsoft, AOL, Google and Yahoo but also the controversial advertising system Phorm has agreed to follow the Good Practise Principle. A prolonged controversy was created in the UK by the service, when the service was trialled by 30,000 web users, without them being aware of it.

In the code of practise, the firms have to sign a self-regulatory agreement in which the companies have given a positive nod to inform their customers about their online data collecting activities.

IAB, head of regulatory affairs, Nick Stringer, said that the association has taken measures to make sure that the customers are aware about their rights and choices. The companies should also take the initiative to educate and protect them.

He also elaborated that behavioural advertising proves very beneficial to the customers. It delivers pertinent advertisements. The program is currently in its infancy and consumers should be informed that they are in control.

Google bought shares that formed 5% of the ISP giant in December 2005. These shares were bought for $1b. They also managed to beat Microsoft in the bidding war for AOL, bringing the price of AOL to $20B. The loss to Google was a big blow to Microsoft.

On the 1st of July, 2008, Google went ahead and got their three year deal with AOL renewed as they invested $726M in AOL Q4 2008.

Today, the scenario has changed as Google has placed AOL at a total value of only $5.4B, which is a big difference from its initial investment. Considering the various clauses of their original agreement, Timer Warner is now being held in a difficult position by Google. Due to this, Times Warner is being forced to cut AOL off their company and let it go public, which if not done will make them buy themselves out of their deal with Google.

Speaking in respect to the deal, Times Warner said that they were reviewing the request set before them. They also added that they had several other options, few of which include going ahead with the request, delaying their decision or buying back from Google.