According to a mid-July memo AOL is doing a bunch of housekeeping that will see a number of services shot behind the woodshed -- among them media-sharing site Bluestring, Xdrive online storage, the AOL Pictures photo-sharing site, and MyMobile. In the memo to employees, EVP Kevin Conroy said, "There was a time at AOL when the strengths of our aggregate portfolio of products more than compensated for the weakness of an under-performing product. The realities of the industry and market shifts in online advertising no longer make that possible. Simply put, every product makes a direct impact on our bottom line."
The belt-tightening drive is also hitting some of AOL's blogging properties, and some authors who are paid by the post were asked to put their efforts on hold until the end of the month. All of this may just be part of AOL's usual periodic pruning, but it's getting more attention because the Yahoo-Microsoft soap opera showed that AOL is in play, and for sale. The question is whether there are any interested buyers
The usual big names are being batted about -- Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp, or maybe a media outfit like the New York Times Co. or News Corp. -- but in most of cases, it's easier to list the cons than the pros. Like other property owners these days, Time Warner may find itself stymied by a lousy market.
George Parker
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