A0B 5 -(Music Press) Ownership & Distribution

Time Warner

In the middle of 2010, The multi national media company that is Time Warner, was the worlds second largest media conglomerate as of the amount of revenue. The company that is first is Disney. Time Warner was the result of two companies merging, these were Warner Communication Inc and Time Inc Merging in 2010. Time Warner also announced there plans to merge with AOL which would form AOL Time Warner Inc which led to AOL stakeholders owning 55% of this new company


Task 2 

• 1991 - American Online formed.
• Immediately began to expand on it's existing online technology & backed it up with a clear business plan and aggressive marketing.
• These tactics worked and it soon became a major internet service provider (ISP) within America
• Another reason for their success was their offering of flat-rate internet access to the customers.
• Many big companies such as Microsoft tried to buy AOL but Chief Executive Steve Castle refused. Instead he continued to build the company independently.
• The company expanded even more in the US and reached into Europe and the UK.
• AOL had now reached a point that they could start shopping around for their own companies to buy and merge with
• Rival ISP, CompuServe was bought out by AOL in 1995 and AOL made the browser Netscape a subsidary.
• AOL looked to create an instant messaging service, therefore they focused their attention on software development companies.
• At it's peak in 2002, AOL had 26.7 million subscribers.

Task 3

• AOL/Time Warner merger one of the biggest deals ever.
• Took place during the biggest bubble of the stock market.
• Marked a triumph of the internet over the old media.
• AOL bigger name on the internet than Google at that time.
• Time Warner huge conglomerate controlling an empire of magazines, music movies etc.
• AOL/Time Warner formed the first fully integrated media and communications company for the internet century.
• While the merger was meant to be equal, it was evident that Steve Case (AOL) was the dominant partner.
• People believed the event would change the world, one reporter quoted to say "it will reinvent television and the possibilities are endless".
• This marked the 'dotcom revolution' where young internet companies were apparently worth billions, despite their revenue being next to nothing.
• Many people abandoned jobs to persue riches to be found in the dotcom revolution
• However, as hi-tech shares fell by 10% the bubble began to burst as was the young hopeful's dreams.
• AOL and Time Warner both had their pitfalls too,  AOL proved fickle and Time Warner had trouble adapting to the online world, a bad position to be in as AOL seemed to be becoming irrevelant.
• It was found that it was more important to build a great platform which everyone would enjoy using (Google) than owning the content and distributing over said platform.
• Its now seen that Google has changed the world, not AOL