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Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4B

wsj.com

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Re: Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4B

#41

Post by raverbashing »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #14
Aqwis wrote: post #11

Is AOL still an Internet access provider?

Yes, there's a shrinking, but still very lucrative, dialup business. It's provided the capital for Aol's growth into media and advertising these past several years.

Gotta love old people adverse to change, or thinking they still need to pay for email.

Re: Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4B

#44

Post by ascagnel_ »

ams6110 wrote: post #32
DrJokepu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With 4G broadband this is going to become irrelevant very quickly.

4G is generally available in rural areas?

Yes; Verizon has an offering designed explicitly for rural areas[1], but it's expensive. The linked article is from 2012, and prices have since declined, but the general gist of the service is the same: a big antenna you bolt to your house or a tree and will pull from an existing account-level share plan (if you have one).

[1] http://www.cnet.com/news/verizons-homefusion-now-brings-4g-l...

Re: Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4B

#45

Post by neonhomer »

ams6110 wrote: post #32
DrJokepu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With 4G broadband this is going to become irrelevant very quickly.

4G is generally available in rural areas?

Yes, an anecdotal example is my parents. They live 45 minutes outside of Columbus, OH and have a Verizon 4G adapter for their desktop. In fact some of the smaller carriers have poor cell/data coverage where they are.

Re: Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4B

#47

Post by nashashmi »

I am having an epiphany. AOL, an internet provider and ad company, buys Time Warner. AOL gets spun off into an independent company. AOL reinvents itself as a media and ad company. Verizon, an internet and TV provider, buys AOL.

This is happening after Verizon reinvented itself from a phone company. Merger 2.0 is making more sense than it was the first time, but still, nonsense enough.

Re: Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4B

#50

Post by 67726e »

earlyriser wrote: post #13
ra1n85 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recently, a woman that I shared an elevator with commented on my laptop - she noticed that I worked at a large tech company. She commented that she too had worked for a large tech company at one time - AOL. I smiled. She then immediately recounted the day she and her entire floor were laid off unceremoniously. Luckily, that was about the time that we reached her floor.

Honest question: why do you say luckily?

No the commenter you're asking, but I've never had a constructive conversation with "those types" - the kind who go out of their way to talk about getting laid off from a tech company.

Of all the ones I've spoken with, it followed the pattern of "BigCo outsourced jobs to those darn Foreigners, and I got laid off, and it will happen to you too!". In particular I worked with a former DBA for IBM at a grocery store in highschool, so I used to hear these tirades. What I never heard was any constructive career advice, or any details other than the outsourcing and cheap foreigners. Now the cynic in me says if low wage, and probably lower skilled workers can take your job, you probably suck. Regardless, it has always struck me a bit like talking to that xenophobic uncle at Thanksgiving type scenario. Nothing good to come.

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