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AOL to lay off 20 percent of workforce

Chris Costa — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:19:14 +0000

The company will begin laying off 2,000 employees out of a global workforce of 10,000 on Tuesday, according to an internal company-wide e-mail obtained by former Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget. An AOL representative confirmed the information.

In the e-mail sent to U.S. employees on Monday, AOL Chief Executive Randy Falco says that the layoffs are needed to keep the operations efficient as the company continues its realignment from a subscription-based ISP to an ad-supported Web company. And he promises "generous severance packages."

Steelers Winning the AOL Search Super Bowl

Chris Costa — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 03:58:26 +0000

If popularity is a sign of who’ll win this week’s Super Bowl, the Steelers should have it in the bag, according to new search data from AOL Search.

The predicted close match-up on the field between Pittsburgh and Seattle is much more lopsided online, with the Steelers receiving twice as many searches as the Seahawks.

What that means is bet against the public and go with the Seahawks!

Top Super Bowl-related Searches on AOLSearch.com

1 Super Bowl
2 Pittsburgh Steelers
3 Seattle Seahawks
4 Super Bowl Tickets
5 Pittsburgh Steelers Songs - scary
6 Jerome Bettis
7 Ford Field
8 Rolling Stones - which team does he play for?
9 Ben Roethlisberger
10 Troy Polamalu

Source: Marketing Pilgrim

MicroSoft Gets a Chunk of Coal for Christmas, Google Extends AOL Partnership

Chris Costa — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 16:24:11 +0000

Reuters reports that Google will renew its partnership with AOL and that MSN is out.

Time Warner Inc. is in exclusive talks with Web search leader Google Inc. about broadening a partnership with Time Warner’s AOL online unit, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Microsoft Corp., once considered the front-runner for a deal with AOL, is — at least for now — out of the running.

Report: Microsoft-AOL Close To Deal

Chris Costa — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 06:30:36 +0000

Report from CNNMoney.com that AOL and Microsoft are close to hammering out an online advertising alliance to challenge Google. MSN would replace Google’s search results on AOL.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that under the deal now being discussed, Time Warner’s America Online unit would switch to using Micosoft’s search engine, and the two companies would set up a joint venture to sell online advertising across both AOL and Microsoft’s MSN portal.

The newspaper reports that Google is still involved in talks about the possibility of its own alliance with AOL, although a person familiar with the talks told the newspaper a sticking point so far has been Google’s reluctance to guarantee Time Warner a minimum amount of revenue, which Microsoft had agreed to do.

FULL STORY: CNN NEWS

Time Warner, Microsoft in talks on AOL-source

Chris Costa — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:12:39 +0000

Reuters article about the possibilty that Microsoft and AOL might team up. Though the article states the sale is at least two months from completion – and thus not a done deal – the potential of this merger could be a big play in the industry.

AOL Rolls Out New Pay Per CALL Web Ad Service

Chris Costa — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:13:21 +0000

Story from Yahoo news about American Online rolling out a new advertising service that helps small businesses get their phone numbers in front of web searchers via a "Pay Per Call" service.

Privately held Ingenio Inc. provides the technology and advertiser services for the new AOL ad program, called "pay per call."

As with so-called pay per click Web search ad services from Google and Yahoo, ads are served up when Internet users search for specific items — for example "mortgage, San Francisco, CA."

The Google and Yahoo ads are delivered in the form of links to an advertiser Web site. Advertisers bid for the price they will pay for each click their ad receives.

Pay per call delivers ads in the form of business listings. Advertisers bid for the price they will pay for each call. Each time a consumer calls a business using the toll-free telephone numbers provided by the ad, the advertiser pays AOL and Ingenio.

The minimum bid for pay per call is $2 per call since person-to-person contact is often viewed as more valuable. Per-click prices for search ads provided by Google and Yahoo start at just a few cents.