A brief history: AOL sometimes down, but never out
One thing you can say about AOL — it's a survivor.
The digital services pioneer merged with Time Warner in 2001, only to see that union eventually lambasted as one of the most epic blunders in corporate history.
In recent years, the "you've got mail'' announcement that users still hear when they click onto their message inbox had been seen as a throwback to a bygone era. But now, once again, AOL is in the headlines and on the vanguard of change, after the announcement that it has been purchased by Verizon in a multibillion-dollar deal.
AOL began as Quantum Computer Services and started its first instant message service in 1989. But by 1991, it redubbed itself America Online, the winning name from an employee competition, according to AOL's investor relations website.
AOL went public in 1992 when its shares began to be traded on NASDAQ, and by 1995, the company launched its AOL.com home page. By 1996, the digital subscription service had 5 million members.
At the start of the new millennium, the $350 billion merger of Time Warner and AOL was hailed as a historic marriage of old and new, tech-driven media. The newly blended company's executives spoke of finding $1 billion in synergies and increasing cash flow immediately.
But those promises largely failed to materialize. Instead, thousands lost their jobs over time, and the combined company's stock price dropped precipitously.
Meanwhile, AOL had begun fighting to hold onto subscribers, who were abandoning its once dominant dial-up service in favor of broadband providers who offered faster access to the Internet. To boost its revenue and relevance, AOL began offering an array of online portals, fueled by advertising revenue, such as Engadget and Moviefone.
In December 2009, Time Warner spun off AOL, bringing the tumultuous union to an end.
Still, AOL dusted itself off. And in March 2011, it purchased the Huffington Post for $315 million, and formed a joint media group that has 56 sites, spanning subjects ranging from journalism to mapping through the popular MapQuest portal.
Verizon Communications has also shifted over time, the product of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. joining forces in June 2000. Bell Atlantic, one of the "Baby Bells'' that formed the foundation of the telephone industry, brought 22 million households in 13 states to the table, while GTE's strength lay in its more national, long-distance scope.
Verizon became part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average four years after the merger. And with its purchase of Alltel in 2009, Verizon Wireless had more customers than any other wireless service provider operating in the U.S.
