I just read moments back an article by MG Siegler on the possibility of TechCrunch about to change. It was bound to happen and any sensible person could have sensed the shit coming TechCrunch’s way when they announced their acquisition by AOL. You sell yourself or even have money poured in by an investor [like AOL] you should be ready to embrace drastic changes, for these firms just can’t tolerate the existing dynamics to function. Just to clarify, by stating “These firms” I strictly point to those who love monopolizing everything possible. Don’t call me a fanboy of TechCrunch or that someone has funded this post, I do so because it is a massive lesson from which other blogs and bloggers should learn.
Tag Archive: aol
It appears the Russian investment firm,Digital Sky Technologies has got some real liking for investing outside the Russian border. Primarily in those that are known names across the Web. DST has been very active in making huge funding in prominent names like the social media platform, Facebook and also in the largest social gaming platform; Zynga [the producer of Farmville and Mafia Wars] worth $180 Million.
The interest in these firms has been enormous and it was bound to bag some other big names. The latest news is of DST acquiring AOL’s ICQ and that is a big move for AOL that had been looking forward to sell off many of its services and ICQ was one of them. The Russians have acquired the Desktop based chat client for $187.5 Million and the deal will be finalized by the third quarter.
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Why is it that all of a sudden everyone has started to rush in over to Facebook? We reported of Microsoft pushing out its Silverlight Client for Facebook and big names like HP, Best Buy and Intel joining hands to roll out Skateboarder. An more recently the abundance of virtual gifts exchange before the Valentines Day thanks to Zynga. Earlier today, AOL stepped in with its bit of Facebook-ishness with integration of Facebook Chat with AIM.
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Execs continue to flood in AOL as the new management takes over. The current one to head in is Brad Garlinghouse will take seat as AOL’s President of Internet and Mobile Communications. He will looking after its IM and mail products making a switch from his recent position as an advisor at Silver Lake Partners with a vast six years experience at Yahoo where he had worked hard to make Yahoo Mail the leading web mail service.
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AOL gets to break free of Google as Time Warner bought back Google’s 5% shares which it had in AOL. The deal had been signed up back in 2005 when Google was able to snatch from Microsoft. However things hadn’t been going smooth for AOL, given that it had been spinning around layoffs, shutdown of services, etc and Google demanded AOL’s spin off or to have its shares taken back for a fair market value. Given the present situation, the value of those shares is much lesser than what it was paid while AOL is being valued at $5.66 Billion.
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Our ears are ringing with a rumor that AOL is set to initiate another round of cuts. We aren’t sure what number of employees it will be laying off or not but that number can be close to what it has already made in the recent past. If this rumor is correct, AOL might announce these layoffs within this week. Anyone out there who has a clue?
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