BoomTown has learned that AOL is offering those who “volunteer” to leave the company now a departure package that ranges from three to nine months of pay, compared to one to four months for employees laid off in the first quarter of next year.
It’s a depressing rock-and-a-hard-place choice.
An AOL spokesperson confirmed the offer, which is part of a massive layoff of 2,500 of its 6,000-person workforce.
AOL has hired a pair of New York investment bankers, Morgan Stanley and Allen & Co., to manage the sale of its ICQ instant-messaging unit.
Sources familiar with the situation said interest in buying the asset from two major non-U.S. companies prompted execs at the online service to put a process in place for a deal that will likely occur after AOL becomes an independent company in December.
AOL bought ICQ in 1998 for about $400 million–$287 million outright and $125 million in earnouts for the team.
Sources said AOL to looking to recoup $300 million.
AOL will officially be spun off from Time Warner on Dec. 9, with trading to begin the next day.
Shareholders of record at 5 pm ET on Nov. 27 will get one share of AOL for every 11 shares of Time Warner on the day of the long-expected spinoff of the Internet service.
AOL will trade on the New York Stock Exchange as “AOL,” just like the old days. Unlike the old days: Time Warner has given the company an implied valuation of a little more than $3 billion.
Who said the venture capital industry is sucking wind lately?
Well, it is–but not today and, especially, not Accel Partners, which sold two of its portfolio start-ups to large public companies for a total of $1.5 billion.
That would be the sale of AdMob to search behemoth Google for $750 million in stock, and the acquisition of Playfish by gaming giant Electronic Arts for about $300 million.
While Accel is not getting all that dough, it’s not a bad haul for the day.
Google has a Web page up about today’s acquisition of AdMob for $750 million in stock, which includes this lovely image of the differences between what the Silicon Valley companies do in the mobile advertising space.
Here’s the quick translation: The Web search behemoth has been slower than molasses in the space, sticking with boring blue links of death, especially compared to the innovative and nimbler start-up, which is rocking the pretty ads.
So, we ate it.
Google has acquired AdMob for $750 million, a huge price for an innovative start-up that hass pioneered online ads on mobile and now smart phones.
BoomTown visited AdMob last fall and posted about how it was likely to eventually be acquired by…Google!
The move is a major one for the search giant, which has been pushing hard into the mobile advertising space as it seeks to grow its already considerable Web business. AdMob is arguably the fastest out of the gate in the nascent arena.
Plus, here’s AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui in a video interview with me last November, as well as the official press release on the sale.
Joe Kraus–the longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur who sold his most recent start-up, JotSpot, to Google in 2006 and has been a director of product management since–has moved to its Google Ventures unit as a partner, said several sources.
Sources added that Kraus is likely to be the first of several well-known appointments at the relatively new venture arm of the search giant.
Of all the tech stocks to watch, perhaps none have been more interesting to follow than those of Microsoft, Google and Apple in recent days.
With so much news emanating from the trio, their shares have been gyrating and twisting on each and every piece of information, so here are some numbers to take a gander at.
Yesterday, BoomTown moderated a panel at California’s Women’s Conference titled “Changing the World Through the Web” for a crowd of several thousand people.
The panelists included Hollywood actor/producer, Katalyst co-founder and Twitter demigod Ashton Kutcher; Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg, who leads the social networking site’s elections, breaking news and social change initiatives; Premal Shah, president of online microloan site Kiva.org; and Joe Rospars, founder and creative director of Blue State Digital and new media director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Here are video interviews I did with each of them.
Microsoft announced much better than expected results–led by strong Windows and Xbox demand and cost discipline.
Here are Microsoft’s slides on the financial results, which you can enjoy all weekend long (if you have no life, it goes without saying).
Well, well, well, that financial imp at Microsoft–CFO Chris Liddell–pulled a fast one on Wall Street and turned in first-quarter earnings that blew away all estimates and even whisper numbers.
BoomTown liveblogged the morning conference call, which took place at 7:30 am PT–thanks for the Kiwi-laced wake-up call, Chris!
While revenue and net income in Q1 were down significantly from the same period a year ago, they were not as bad as investors expected.
Which apparently passes for terrific these days!
Microsoft has had a high-profile week, between launching its new Windows 7 operating system and striking real-time feed partnerships with both Twitter and Facebook.
But Wall Street is not expecting quite as much excitement from the software giant’s first-quarter earnings, which will be announced before the markets open this morning.
So any beating of expectations would be seen as a big deal by investors.
Yahoo reported its third-quarter earnings earlier today, a pretty good performance in which it soundly beat Wall Street expectations with a stronger net income than expected.
While advertising revenue was down at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, also as expected, cost-cutting by CEO Carol Bartz and the sale of its stake in China’s Alibaba seem to have more than made up for it.
Here are Yahoo’s financial presentations, full of more numbers than you will ever want to crunch.
Uh-oh, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was expected to appear on the Internet giant’s third-quarter earnings call, but she apparently “came down with something,” according to CFO Tim Morse.
BoomTown is sending over chicken soup right now, but let’s hope she gets her vaccinations tout de suite!
Thus, no sassy quotes or cursing, but a very earnest Morse, who sounded like he was once a Boy Scout.
Yahoo bested Wall Street expectations today, announcing stronger net income for its third quarter, despite an also expected decline in revenue.
In addition, Yahoo’s expectations for the fourth quarter are more positive than expected by investors.
But, there were some issues to worry about: Search advertising revenue was off 19 percent and display was off eight percent at “Owned and Operated” sites on Yahoo.
So, while investors can finally relax, how Yahoo can grow going forward is sure to be their next focus.
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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