AOL Is Cutting Everywhere – Update

AOL looks like they are getting ready to go up on the auction block to me.

They are cutting out broadband, eliminating divisions (Shoutcast/WinAmp), and more. They are doing this while they are working on rolling out a VoIP product.

Me thinks two things. First AOL wants to be the dominant dial up player in the market and is working to gear everything in that direction. Second they are looking like a company that is about to be sold. By trimming staff, high cost centers and not pursuing a grow to where the market is going strategy, they are making it easier for a suitor to figure out where the core value of the company rests.

In my view the glory days of AOL are long over. They have become what they fought so hard not to be, another Compuserve.

A few hours since I posted, AOL issued this statement.

I’m glad they bit. If you look at how AOL has operated in their relationships with the RBOC’s they have struck one deal in once market, and then over a series of months made similar announcements. While AOL can spin this anyway they want to, the facts are that in BellSouth’s backyard AOL is getting out of the business of selling broadband.

Is this the abortion or the harbinger of things to come? Time will tell.