This morning we learned that Microsoft and AOL had signed a deal that would see MSFT pick up 800 of AOL’s patents for around $1 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close at the end of 2012, with Microsoft being able to leverage AOL’s remaining 300 patents under a non-exclusive license. As it turns out, there was an undisclosed term to the deal, and AllThingsD reports that Microsoft has picked up part of Netscape.
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- Mad Catz Project M.O.J.O. hands-on
- iOS 7 and the rebirth of iPhone
- NVIDIA SHIELD as mini game console: hands-on with Nyko PlayPad Pro
- Nyko Xbox One, PlayStation 4 Charge Bases eyes-on with NVIDIA SHIELD bonus
‘AOL’ Stories
Microsoft quietly buys Netscape browser technology
Microsoft grabs 800+ AOL patents in $1bn deal
Microsoft has bought over 800 of AOL's patents, plus signed a patent licensing agreement, in a deal worth $1.056 billion in cash the companies have confirmed. Expected to close by the end of 2012, the sale will see AOL keep hold of over 300 patents and patent applications - which Microsoft will be allowed to use under a non-exclusive license - as well as reward shareholders with "a significant proportion" of the proceeds.
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AOL picks up photo app Hipster
AOL has just announced that it has acquired a photo-sharing app called Hipster and its namesake company. Launched last year, Hipster has 100,000 users that create their own digital postcards, containing location data, that can be shared with their friends and family. With the acquisition, the entire team moves to AOL and will also be developing other projects.
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Instant Messenger not dead insists AOL
Talk of AOL Instant Messenger's death has been greatly exaggerated, the company says, claiming it has no plans to shut down the AIM service. Although reports circulated yesterday suggesting AIM had been axed, the company insists to Computerworld that "we are not killing Instant Messenger" and that instead "we'll continue to support it and evolve the product." That evolution will go on without a chunk of AIM team staff, however, including its chief.
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AOL kills Instant Messenger
Likely the very first non-email application you ever used to speak with your friends and relatives is about to be shut down for good, AOL Instant Messanger, aka AIM, has been all but slashed entirely from the AOL family. This application's 40 employees in charge of development as well as everything outside of basic maintenance has been let go entirely. While support staff for the ecosystem will remain, no future upgrades to the software will exist from this point on.
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AOL to announce more mass layoffs
Poor AOL. Once the only major player in the online market, it's now just a shell of what it used to be, and the company is expected to axe another sweeping group of employees, including executives. Sadly, it's not much of a surprise, as the company is struggling to find a new voice in the 21st century. This time it's targeting those who work on its communications platforms.
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GigaOM acquires paidContent.org’s parent company
GigaOM, a San Francisco-based Web 2.0 online news site, has acquired fellow digital media company ContentNext Media, the parent company of the popular site paidContent.org. ContentNext was put up on the market last November after its previous owner, Guardian News & Media, decided to ditch the brand and focus instead on expanding the reach of its other online publication. In other words, it's a whirlwind of corporate hand-offs that was officially announced today.
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AOL’s Huffington Post to enter streaming video territory
The Huffington Post, which has blossomed into one of the biggest online news networks in the world, is planning to enter a space it hasn't really delved into before - live streaming video. The site will essentially become a competitor not only to online news outlets but to the 24/7 cable news networks as well. At least, that is the goal. The site plans to offer 12 hours of original programming every day.
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Microsoft considering Yahoo! bid
Stockholders today are speaking about several things when it comes to big internet-born companies, the biggest news here being Microsoft's possible future purchase of Yahoo! It seems that as Yahoo!'s former chief exec Carol Bartz exits and their board hires several banks (reportedly) to help them decide what to do with the company, like sell it, Microsoft is apparently speaking internally about picking up the group for a pretty penny. On the other hand, AOL appears to be a less than appealing choice for a purchase than Yahoo! as the source for this story speaks about below.
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AOL, Google, and others sued for patent infringement on search filtering tech
Some of the biggest search engines in the world have been sued along with a US retailing giant. The suit alleges that the firms are infringing on patents that have to do with relevance grouping on search results. The companies named in the suit are AOL, Google, IAC Search and Media, Gannett Company, and Target.
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Google To Invest Millions On Celebrity Youtube Channels
The recent boom of YouTube stars may get pushed aside by established Hollywood stars. Google is looking to entice established celebrities with $5 million dollars for their own YouTube channel of original content. The money would cover salaries, production values, and the celebrity would get full ownership of the show. Google hopes to get twenty celebrity channels, which equals to a $100 million investment. They can afford the price tag by making it back quickly with the premium advertising they plan to run on the channels. The move mirrors what AOL and Yahoo are doing with personal celebrity channels, but YouTube has a much larger footprint and distribution network.
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75% of AOL subscribers “don’t realize” they don’t need it
AOL's dial-up service could be in worse shape than previously believed, with a former executive telling the New Yorker [subscription required] that 75-percent of the people who subscribe "don't need it." According to the unnamed ex-exec, 80-percent of AOL's profits come from subscribers, "many of who are older people who have cable or DSL service" but are unaware that they needn't pay the old AOL dial-up fee in order to access their email.
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