Comments on: Bewkes Job No. 1: No More Stumble-Bumbling With AOL http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071108/bewkes-job-1-no-more-stumble-bumbling-with-aol/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:45:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: AOL: Yadda, Yadda, Yedda? | BoomTown | Kara Swisher | AllThingsD http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071108/bewkes-job-1-no-more-stumble-bumbling-with-aol/#comment-1606 AOL: Yadda, Yadda, Yedda? | BoomTown | Kara Swisher | AllThingsD Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:26:50 +0000 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071108/bewkes-job-1-no-more-stumble-bumbling-with-aol/#comment-1606 [...] The price for the start-up, founded in 2006, was not disclosed, although it recently raised $2.5 million. Last week, AOL confirmed it has bought the Quigo ad network at a price tag of upward of $300 million, a development we first reported in BoomTown. [...] [...] The price for the start-up, founded in 2006, was not disclosed, although it recently raised $2.5 million. Last week, AOL confirmed it has bought the Quigo ad network at a price tag of upward of $300 million, a development we first reported in BoomTown. [...]

]]> By: Sohail Ahmed http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071108/bewkes-job-1-no-more-stumble-bumbling-with-aol/#comment-1590 Sohail Ahmed Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:53:02 +0000 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071108/bewkes-job-1-no-more-stumble-bumbling-with-aol/#comment-1590 A spin off of AOL and a merger of that entity into a Yahoo! or Google would be ideal. Yahoo! has a lot of similar content / web properties, so AOL could make them the definitive content leader, while going the Google route could shore up the raw content side that Google is still building out (Google could have an east cost engineering campus!). The engineering talent at AOL is top notch. I've started a tech company in the past and I know how difficult the hiring process is for amassing a team of A players. I was pleasantly surprised by the raw talent I see at AOL. And it takes a *lot* of effort to build teams of consistently high quality. To not be able to make money with these guys would be a shame. It really is up to the executives to steer the ship and provide the vision that their staff (engineers) can execute on. And their engineers definitely can. VCs looking for new talent or whole teams could carve them right out of AOL and hit the ground running. So the challenge is to the biz folks: are you going to leverage your engineering talent or let someone else? A spin off of AOL and a merger of that entity into a Yahoo! or Google would be ideal. Yahoo! has a lot of similar content / web properties, so AOL could make them the definitive content leader, while going the Google route could shore up the raw content side that Google is still building out (Google could have an east cost engineering campus!).

The engineering talent at AOL is top notch. I’ve started a tech company in the past and I know how difficult the hiring process is for amassing a team of A players.

I was pleasantly surprised by the raw talent I see at AOL.

And it takes a *lot* of effort to build teams of consistently high quality. To not be able to make money with these guys would be a shame. It really is up to the executives to steer the ship and provide the vision that their staff (engineers) can execute on. And their engineers definitely can.

VCs looking for new talent or whole teams could carve them right out of AOL and hit the ground running. So the challenge is to the biz folks: are you going to leverage your engineering talent or let someone else?

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