So the speculation is that Time Warner is ready to dump AOL, the company that "acquired" it back at the turn of the century. Who would have thought back then that the adopted child would end up divorcing its parent?
Anyone capable of realizing that combining an Old Media Hollywood company and a New Media Internet access provider and online content biz did not necessarily mean synergy. Their cultures are about as similar as a tribe of chimpanzees and an aardvark.
But here's a good cultural fit: Rolla P. Huff is ready to buy AOL's dial-up access business. This monkey, failing to point Earthlink toward the future, has the vision to build a bridge to the past.
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Here's the logic: Take a company in so much trouble that it can only keep customers with the threat of early termination fees, combine it with a declining business model, and milk it ofr all it's worth before going out of business.
It might buy time if Eathlink wasn't so incompetent. How? Huff said it: Consolidation. Translation: Raise prices!
The combination of Earthlink customer service and higher dial-up access fees will do customers a lot of good by driving them to DSL.
It makes my wonder. How many monkeys typing randomly on a computer does it take to come up with a good business plan?