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89-695: LDCOM (the future Neuf Telecom) was established by the Louis Dreyfus Group in 1998, at the time of telecommunications deregulation, with a mission "to rapidly gain access to a network, penetrate into the center of the major urban areas, provide means of interconnection with the motorway networks, and offer the possibility of competitive long-distance links". At first it was present on the wholesale market only, providing services such as national and metro fiber networks, colocation and hosting centers to other operators and internet services providers, using its own network. Its main subsidiary, LD Cable, performed

178-465: A binding agreement to fully acquire the Brazilian instant coffee exporter, Cacique for an undisclosed amount. Léopold Louis-Dreyfus's great-grandson, Gérard Louis-Dreyfus , was chairman of Louis Dreyfus Energy Services , a subsidiary of the group involved in crude-oil trading , gas investments and infrastructure. Gérard is also the father of American actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus . Another branch of

267-592: A company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online ) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online service known as PlayNET . PlayNET licensed its software to Quantum Link (Q-Link), which went online in November 1985. A new IBM PC client was launched in 1988, and eventually renamed as America Online in 1989. AOL grew to become

356-484: A cost of $ 1 per game. The telephone disconnected and the downloaded game would remain in GameLine's Master Module, playable until the user turned off the console or downloaded another game. In January 1983, Steve Case was hired as a marketing consultant for Control Video on the recommendation of his brother, investment banker Dan Case. In May 1983, Jim Kimsey became a manufacturing consultant for Control Video, which

445-433: A deal valued at $ 4.4 billion. The transaction was completed on June 23. Armstrong , who continued to lead the firm following regulatory approval, called the deal the logical next step for AOL. "If you look forward five years, you're going to be in a space where there are going to be massive, global-scale networks, and there's no better partner for us to go forward with than Verizon." he said. "It's really not about selling

534-543: A decline linked to the discontinuation of wholesale sales to AOL and Club Internet following the Group's acquisition of these ISPs, the contraction in the traditional switched voice business, the decline of dial-up Internet business and the end of the GSM gateway business. In this segment, the group competed primarily with France Telecom, Completel and Telecom Italia. Louis Dreyfus Group Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. ( LDC )

623-512: A diagnostic tool to monitor and rate PC security status, and recommended additional security software from AOL or Download.com . Two months later, AOL released AOL Active Virus Shield , a free product developed by Kaspersky Lab , that did not require an AOL account, only an internet email address. The ISP side of AOL UK was bought by Carphone Warehouse in October 2006 to take advantage of its 100,000 LLU customers, making Carphone Warehouse

712-399: A digital documentary series focusing on high-achieving women in industries perceived as male-dominated such as war, comedy, space, business, Hollywood and politics. Subjects for MAKERS episodes have included Oprah Winfrey , Hillary Clinton , Sheryl Sandberg , Martha Stewart , Indra Nooyi , Lena Dunham and Ellen DeGeneres . On March 15, 2012, AOL announced the acquisition of Hipster,

801-486: A drop in adjusted OIBDA due to increased investments in the company's video and programmatic platforms. On June 29, 2015, AOL announced a deal with Microsoft to take over the majority of its digital advertising business. Under the pact, as many as 1,200 Microsoft employees involved with the business will be transferred to AOL, and the company will take over the sale of display, video, and mobile ads on various Microsoft platforms in nine countries, including Brazil, Canada,

890-585: A famous municipal FTTH project called "Pau Broadbandcity" and therefore brought strong expertise in this area to Neuf Cegetel. In February 2007, Neuf Cegetel took control of Erenis, an alternate service provider which had been laying fiber in Paris since 2003 and had more than 10,000 customers. In April 2007, Neuf Cegetel announced that its FTTH-based triple play offering was available to 55,000 households in Paris, with internet access at speeds up to 50 Mbit/s for

979-468: A fourth 3G license, but rejected the sole bid from fixed broadband access provider Free Telecom (Iliad Group) because it failed to meet the required financial conditions, which were the same for new applicants as for the three holders. In November 2007, the French Senate approved an amendment to the country's budget bill for 2008 to allow the government to change the financial conditions for assigning

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1068-462: A headline price of €29.90 ($ 40.75) per month. Neuf Cegetel announced plans to invest €300 million ($ 408 million) in 2007, 2008 and 2009 to exceed 1 million homes in Paris and other cities and sign up 250,000 customers. LD Collectivités, a Neuf Cegetel subsidiary specializing in local government networks, was selected for the first public service contract to develop a FTTH network in the Paris region. LD Collectivités, in partnership with HDDR, announced

1157-493: A joint venture. Those plans were abandoned when it was revealed on December 20, 2005, that Google would purchase a 5% share of AOL for $ 1 billion. On April 3, 2006, AOL announced that it would retire the full name America Online. The official name of the service became AOL, and the full name of the Time Warner subdivision became AOL LLC . On June 8, 2006, AOL offered a new program called AOL Active Security Monitor,

1246-560: A large number of customers were needed. As described in the previous section, Neuf Cegetel acquired several ADSL-based triple play operators to increase its market share and became the second-largest broadband operator in France after France Telecom (Orange) . In January 2007, Neuf Cegetel purchased Mediafibre (3,000 customers), a small regional fiber-based triple play operator in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques , southwest France. This operator operated

1335-510: A major $ 4.2 billion deal. The deal closed on March 17, 1999. Another large acquisition in December 1999 was that of MapQuest , for $ 1.1 billion. In January 2000, as new broadband technologies were being rolled out around the New York City metropolitan area and elsewhere across the US, AOL and Time Warner Entertainment announced plans to merge, forming AOL Time Warner, Inc. The terms of

1424-452: A major consolidation. LDCOM acquired several alternate operators cheaply, including: With these acquisitions, in 2003 LDCOM became the number-three competitor to France Telecom across all segments: wholesale, enterprise and residential. In 2003, Cegetel merged with "Telecom Development" (TD) and was 65% owned by Groupe SFR Cegetel and 35% by SNCF. Groupe SFR Cegetel was 56% owned by Vivendi Universal and 44% by Vodafone . In contrast with

1513-441: A mobile photo-sharing app, for an undisclosed amount. On April 9, 2012, AOL announced a deal to sell 800 patents to Microsoft for $ 1.056 billion. The deal included a perpetual license for AOL to use the patents. In April, AOL took several steps to expand its ability to generate revenue through online video advertising . The company announced that it would offer gross rating point (GRP) guarantee for online video, mirroring

1602-529: A recognized brand, especially in the enterprise and wholesale segments (over 16,000 corporate clients), but was probably more conservative and slower-moving. Unlike many (80+) loss-making alternative licensed operators in France, LDCOM was unaffected by the so-called telecoms crash in March 2000 because of its cautious and pragmatic overall approach. From 2000 to 2003, the French telecom services market went through

1691-629: A second stage, it announced a plan to invest EUR300 million in LLU, but the decision was probably too late. Wanadoo, the Internet subsidiary of France Telecom, Free Telecom (Iliad Group) and LDCOM gained a considerable head start and captured significant market shares. Cegetel's revenues from the traditional services market were declining, and the group arrived late on the DSL market. In August 2005, Neuf Telecom and its rival Cegetel merged to create Neuf Cegetel. It

1780-502: A series of acquisitions. It announced the acquisition of Patch Media , a network of community-specific news and information sites focused on towns and communities. On September 28, 2010, at the San Francisco TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, AOL signed an agreement to acquire TechCrunch . On December 12, 2010, AOL acquired about.me , a personal profile and identity platform, four days after

1869-569: A service for IBM -compatible PCs developed in a joint venture with the Tandy Corporation . After the company parted ways with Apple in October 1989, Quantum changed the service's name to America Online. Case promoted and sold AOL as the online service for people unfamiliar with computers, in contrast to CompuServe , which was well established in the technical community. From the beginning, AOL included online games in its mix of products; many classic and casual games were included in

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1958-518: A short-lived venture called Control Video Corporation ( CVC ), founded by William von Meister . Its sole product was an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console, after von Meister's idea of buying music on demand was rejected by Warner Bros. Subscribers bought a modem from the company for $ 49.95 and paid a one-time $ 15 setup fee. GameLine permitted subscribers to temporarily download games and keep track of high scores, at

2047-399: Is a French merchant firm that is involved in agriculture , food processing , international shipping, and finance. The company owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels , develops and operates telecommunications infrastructures, and it is also involved in real estate development, management and ownership. Along with Archer Daniels Midland , Bunge , and Cargill , Louis Dreyfus is one of

2136-527: Is also the "indirect access" prefix code granted in 1998 by the National Regulatory Authority to Telecom Italia ("9 Telecom"), which was subsequently acquired by LDCOM. The prefix code "9" is dialled by switched voice customers before the destination number when they place calls from a different access network (France Telecom) and when they want to select Neuf Cegetel as the preferred operator. Because customers tend to forget to dial

2225-501: Is commonly referred to as the " Eternal September ", as Usenet's cycle of new users was previously dominated by smaller numbers of college and university freshmen gaining access in September and taking a few weeks to acclimate. This also coincided with a new "carpet bombing" marketing campaign by CMO Jan Brandt to distribute as many free trial AOL trial disks as possible through nonconventional distribution partners. At one point, 50% of

2314-454: The HuffPost acquisition. On September 14, 2011, AOL formed a strategic ad-selling partnership with two of its largest competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft . The three companies would begin selling inventory on each other's sites. The strategy was designed to help the companies compete with Google and advertising networks. On February 28, 2012, AOL partnered with PBS to launch MAKERS,

2403-542: The CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo. AOL quickly surpassed GEnie , and by the mid-1990s, it passed Prodigy (which for several years allowed AOL advertising) and CompuServe . In November 1994, AOL purchased Booklink for its web browser, to give its users web access. In 1996, AOL replaced Booklink with a browser based on Internet Explorer, reportedly in exchange for inclusion of AOL in Windows. AOL launched services with

2492-785: The National Education Association , the American Federation of Teachers , National Geographic , the Smithsonian Institution , the Library of Congress , Pearson , Scholastic , ASCD , NSBA , NCTE, Discovery Networks , Turner Education Services ( CNN Newsroom ), NPR , The Princeton Review , Stanley Kaplan , Barron's , Highlights for Kids , the US Department of Education , and many other education providers. AOL offered

2581-643: The Tysons Corner CDP in unincorporated Fairfax County , Virginia, near the Town of Vienna . AOL was quickly running out of room in October 1996 for its network at the Fairfax County campus. In mid-1996, AOL moved to 22000 AOL Way in Dulles , unincorporated Loudoun County , Virginia to provide room for future growth. In a five-year landmark agreement with the most popular operating system, AOL

2670-614: The World Trade Center in Amsterdam . Louis Dreyfus companies are present in more than 100 countries, with 72 offices. Major offices are located in Geneva , London , Beijing , Buenos Aires , Paris , São Paulo , Singapore , New York City and Connecticut . Aggregate average annual gross sales in recent years have exceeded US$ 120 billion. The company employs more than 22,000 people globally at peak season. In 1851,

2759-421: The "AOL" from its name. It was the largest merger in history when completed with the combined value of the companies at $ 360 billion. This value fell sharply, to as low as $ 120 billion, as markets repriced AOL's valuation as a pure internet firm more modestly when combined with the traditional media and cable business. This status did not last long, and the company's value rose again within three months. By

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2848-485: The 4th quarter of 2007. In this segment, the group competed primarily with: According to the 2007 annual report, the Wholesale division generated revenue of €871M, or 26% of the Group's total revenue of €3.348 billion, mainly with the following products provided to other service providers and ISPs: ADSL wholesale, IP peering, PSTN interconnect and call termination, hosting etc. This historical activity had experienced

2937-418: The 60-day advance notice requirement by provisions of the 1988 federal WARN Act . By November 2007, AOL's customer base had been reduced to 10.1 million subscribers, slightly more than the number of subscribers of Comcast and AT&T Yahoo! . According to Falco, as of December 2007, the conversion rate of accounts from paid access to free access was more than 80%. On January 3, 2008, AOL announced

3026-735: The AOL original series The Future Starts Here in the News and Documentary category. This came days after AOL earned its first Primetime Emmy Award nomination and win for Park Bench with Steve Buscemi in the Outstanding Short Form Variety Series . Created and hosted by Tiffany Shlain , the series focused on humans' relationship with technology and featured episodes such as "The Future of Our Species," "Why We Love Robots" and "A Case for Optimism." On May 12, 2015, Verizon announced plans to buy AOL for $ 50 per share in

3115-689: The America out of America Online," according to industry pundits. Service centers based in India and the Philippines continue to provide customer support and technical assistance to subscribers. On September 17, 2007, AOL announced the relocation of one of its corporate headquarters from Dulles , Virginia to New York City and the combination of its advertising units into a new subsidiary called Platform A. This action followed several advertising acquisitions, most notably Advertising.com , and highlighted

3204-691: The French Euronext exchange in October 2006. It was oversubscribed nearly 15 times. In July 2007, Neuf Cegetel announced that French competition authorities had approved the acquisition of T-Online France (also known as "Club Internet"). At the end of September 2007, the group had 3.12 million broadband Internet clients, up 56% from two million a year earlier. In 2006-2007 several service providers, including France Telecom (Orange), Free Telecom (Iliad Group), Noos Numericable and Neuf Cegetel, announced plans to roll out FTTH services in major population centers in France. To make such investments pay off,

3293-472: The North American market, DSL is the dominant broadband access technology in France, for several reasons: the penetration of cable systems has been relatively low; the incumbent operator France Telecom and the domestic telecom vendor Alcatel decided in the late 1990s that ADSL was strategically the best choice; and a favorable regulatory environment was subsequently offered to alternative operators for

3382-617: The United States, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, Google Search will be replaced on AOL properties with Bing —which will display advertising sold by Microsoft . Both advertising deals are subject to affiliate marketing revenue sharing . On July 22, 2015, AOL received two News and Documentary Emmy nominations, one for MAKERS in the Outstanding Historical Programming category, and

3471-424: The case is still ongoing: "[A]s of December 31, 2018, Bunge's Argentine subsidiary had received income tax assessments relating to 2006 through 2009 of approximately 1,276 million Argentine pesos (approximately $ 34 million), plus applicable interest on the outstanding amount of approximately 4,246 million Argentine pesos (approximately $ 113 million)." AOL AOL (stylized as Aol. , formerly

3560-422: The closing of its Reston, Virginia data center, which was sold to CRG West . On February 6, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes announced that Time Warner would divide AOL's internet-access and advertising businesses, with the possibility of later selling the internet-access division. On March 13, 2008, AOL purchased the social networking site Bebo for $ 850 million (£417 million). On July 25, AOL announced that it

3649-436: The company changed to a flat monthly rate of $ 19.95. During this time, AOL connections were flooded with users trying to connect, and many canceled their accounts due to constant busy signals . A commercial was made featuring Steve Case telling people AOL was working day and night to fix the problem. Within three years, AOL's user base grew to 10 million people. In 1995, AOL was headquartered at 8619 Westwood Center Drive in

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3738-473: The company today. It's about setting up for the next five to 10 years." Analyst David Bank said he thought the deal made sense for Verizon. The deal will broaden Verizon's advertising sales platforms and increase its video production ability through websites such as HuffPost , TechCrunch , and Engadget . However, Craig Moffett said it was unlikely the deal would make a big difference to Verizon's bottom line. AOL had about two million dial-up subscribers at

3827-711: The company was founded in the Alsace region of France by Léopold Dreyfus , the 18-year-old Alsatian Ashkenazi Jewish son of a farmer from Sierentz , under the name of his father, Louis Dreyfus. Léopold purchased wheat from local farmers in Alsace and transported it to Basel in Switzerland , 13 kilometres (8 mi) away. Léopold developed a fortune whilst still a teenager through cross border cereal trading. He rapidly diversified across shipping, weapons manufacturing , agriculture, oil and banking, thus establishing one of

3916-466: The company's new focus on advertising-driven business models. AOL management stressed that "significant operations" would remain in Dulles, which included the company's access services and modem banks. In October 2007, AOL announced the relocation of its other headquarters from Loudoun County , Virginia to New York City, while continuing to operate its Virginia offices. As part of the move to New York and

4005-456: The company's personalization technology, was Armstrong's fourth-largest deal since taking command in 2009. Later that year, AOL acquired Vidible, a company that developed technology to help websites run video content from other publishers, and help video publishers sell their content to these websites. The deal, which was announced December 1, 2014, was reportedly worth roughly $ 50 million. On July 16, 2014, AOL earned an Emmy nomination for

4094-560: The deal called for AOL shareholders to own 55% of the new, combined company. The deal closed on January 11, 2001. The new company was led by executives from AOL, SBI, and Time Warner. Gerald Levin , who had served as CEO of Time Warner, was CEO of the new company. Steve Case served as chairman, J. Michael Kelly (from AOL) was the chief financial officer, Robert W. Pittman (from AOL) and Dick Parsons (from Time Warner) served as co-chief operating officers. In 2002, Jonathan Miller became CEO of AOL. The following year, AOL Time Warner dropped

4183-583: The dynasty, based in Paris, was headed by Robert Louis-Dreyfus (who was also the CEO of Adidas ) until his death in 2009. It is currently overseen by his widow, Russian-born Margarita Bogdanova Louis-Dreyfus . A third branch of the family's business is headed by Philippe Louis-Dreyfus (b. 1945) and is concerned primarily with offshore industrial activities and freight shipping operations. A case of transfer mispricing came to light in 2011 in Argentina involving

4272-447: The end of that year, the tide had turned against "pure" internet companies, with many collapsing under falling stock prices, and even the strongest companies in the field losing up to 75% of their market value . The decline continued though 2001, but even with the losses, AOL was among the internet giants that continued to outperform brick and mortar companies. In 2004, along with the launch of AOL 9.0 Optimized, AOL also made available

4361-536: The end of the fiscal year. On November 23, AOL unveiled a new brand identity with the wordmark "Aol." superimposed onto canvases created by commissioned artists. The new identity, designed by Wolff Olins , was integrated with all of AOL's services on December 10, the date upon which AOL traded independently for the first time since the Time Warner merger on the New York Stock Exchange under

4450-504: The engineering work, obtaining the necessary permits for the construction works, supplying and laying the fiber optic cables, and negotiating with local and regional authorities in France. Cegetel was a separate company, established in 1996 as a subsidiary of Groupe SFR Cegetel, which combined a fixed line operator (Cegetel) and a wireless operator (SFR) established in 1987. Cegetel was France's second fixed-line operator, competing directly with France Telecom . It had about 2,000 employees and

4539-455: The first Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games to depict the adventure with graphics instead of text. During the early 1990s, the average subscription lasted for about 25 months and accounted for $ 350 in total revenue. Advertisements invited modem owners to "Try America Online FREE", promising free software and trial membership. AOL discontinued Q-Link and PC Link in late 1994. In September 1993, AOL added Usenet access to its features. This

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4628-453: The first parental controls, and many other online education firsts. AOL purchased search engine WebCrawler in 1995, but sold it to Excite the following year; the deal made Excite the sole search and directory service on AOL. After the deal closed in March 1997, AOL launched its own branded search engine, based on Excite, called NetFind. This was renamed to AOL Search in 1999. AOL charged its users an hourly fee until December 1996, when

4717-643: The first real-time homework help service (the Teacher Pager—1990; prior to this, AOL provided homework help bulletin boards), the first service by children, for children (Kids Only Online, 1991), the first online service for parents (the Parents Information Network, 1991), the first online courses (1988), the first omnibus service for teachers (the Teachers' Information Network, 1990), the first online exhibit ( Library of Congress , 1991),

4806-566: The following products: In this segment, the group competed primarily with: According to the 2007 annual report, the Enterprises division generated revenue of €1.039 billion, or 31% of the Group's total revenue of €3.348 billion, mainly from the following products: At the end of December 2007, 173,000 business access links were connected to Neuf Cegetel's network, representing an annual increase of 34,000. The "9office" VoIP offer in particular accounted for close to 40% of new data links during

4895-646: The four "ABCD" companies that dominate world agricultural commodity trading. The company makes up about 10% of the world's agricultural product trade flows, and is the world's largest cotton and rice trader. It is also regarded by many as the second-largest player in the world's sugar market. LDC Metals expanded to become the world's third biggest trader of copper, zinc and lead concentrate, behind only Glencore and Trafigura . Louis Dreyfus Company has its head office in Rotterdam , Netherlands . The company's parent, Louis Dreyfus Holding B.V., has its headquarters at

4984-467: The fourth license. In December 2007, Vivendi 's SFR mobile phone division, which owns 40.5% of Neuf Cegetel, offered to buy the rest for €4.5 billion, intending to challenge France Telecom in the market for combined fixed-line, internet and cellphone services and to create "the biggest, strongest non-incumbent in Europe". The acquisition was completed on 24 June 2008. "Neuf" in French is the number nine. It

5073-600: The hope of diverting more advertising money into the digital space. On April 24, the company launched the AOL On network, a single website for its video output. In February 2013, AOL reported its fourth quarter revenue of $ 599.5 million, its first growth in quarterly revenue in eight years. In August 2013, Armstrong announced that Patch Media would scale back or sell hundreds of its local news sites. Not long afterward, layoffs began, with up to 500 out of 1,100 positions initially impacted. On January 15, 2014, Patch Media

5162-710: The implementation of Local Loop Unbundling (LLU). France liberalised the long distance market in 1998, organised LLU trials with France Telecom in January 2000 and established a legal framework for LLU in early 2001, but in practice there was no real possibility for alternative operators to be profitable in the broadband access market until 2003–2004. France Telecom's tariffs and technical conditions then became progressively more attractive, encouraging several alternative operators, including Free Telecom (Iliad Group) and LDCOM, to invest massively in ADSL infrastructure. In 2004, LDCOM

5251-596: The largest LLU provider in the UK. In August 2006, AOL announced that it would offer email accounts and software previously available only to its paying customers, provided that users accessed AOL or AOL.com through an access method not owned by AOL (otherwise known as "third party transit", "bring your own access" or "BYOA"). The move was designed to reduce costs associated with the "walled garden" business model by reducing usage of AOL-owned access points and shifting members with high-speed internet access from client-based usage to

5340-503: The largest online service, displacing established players like CompuServe and The Source . By 1995, AOL had about three million active users. AOL was at one point the most recognized brand on the Web in the United States. AOL once provided a dial-up Internet service to millions of Americans and pioneered instant messaging and chat rooms with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). In 1998, AOL purchased Netscape for US$ 4.2 billion. By 2000, AOL

5429-452: The more lucrative advertising provider AOL.com. The change from paid to free access was also designed to slow the rate at which members canceled their accounts and defected to Microsoft Hotmail , Yahoo! or other free email providers. The other free services included: Also in August, AOL informed its US customers of an increase in the price of its dial-up access to $ 25.90. The increase

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5518-407: The new CEO. Under his leadership, the company invested in media brands and advertising technologies. On June 23, 2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications for $ 4.4 billion. On May 3, 2021, Verizon announced it would sell Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $ 5 billion. On September 1, 2021, AOL became part of the new Yahoo! Inc . AOL began in 1983, as

5607-453: The only ones to have a 3G license. In December 2006, the Court of Appeal approved the initial decision of the "Conseil de la Concurrence" (an administrative authority that regulates competition) and confirmed that Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom would have to pay 256, 220 and 58 million euros respectively, because of collusion. The National Regulatory Authority Arcep reopened the bidding for

5696-668: The option of personalized greetings which would enable the user to hear his or her name while accessing basic functions and mail alerts, or while logging in or out. In 2005, AOL broadcast the Live 8 concert live over the Internet, and thousands of users downloaded clips of the concert over the following months. In late 2005, AOL released AOL Safety & Security Center, a bundle of McAfee Antivirus , CA anti-spyware, and proprietary firewall and phishing protection software. News reports in late 2005 identified companies such as Yahoo! , Microsoft , and Google as candidates for turning AOL into

5785-494: The original PlayNet software system. The company introduced many innovative online interactive titles and games, including: In February 1991, AOL for DOS was launched using a GeoWorks interface; it was followed a year later by AOL for Windows . This coincided with growth in pay-based online services, like Prodigy , CompuServe , and GEnie . 1991 also saw the introduction of an original Dungeons & Dragons title called Neverwinter Nights from Stormfront Studios , one of

5874-420: The other for True Trans With Laura Jane Grace , which documented the story of Laura Jane Grace, a transgender musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me! , and her decision to come out publicly and overall transition experience. On September 3, 2015, AOL agreed to buy Millennial Media for $ 238 million. On October 23, 2015, AOL completed

5963-593: The platform's public launch. On January 31, 2011, AOL announced the acquisition of European video distribution network goviral. In March 2011, AOL acquired HuffPost for $ 315 million. Shortly after the acquisition was announced, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington replaced AOL content chief David Eun, assuming the role of president and editor-in-chief of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group. On March 10, AOL announced that it would cut approximately 900 workers following

6052-514: The prefix code, a reminder was included in most advertisements and the number was integrated into the brand name and logo ("9 Telecom", "N9uf Telecom", "N9uf Cegetel"). "Neuf" also means "brand new". Today, "indirect access" is a marginal and declining business in France. According to Neuf Cegetel's 2007 annual report, the Mass Market division generated revenue of €1.437 billion, or 42% of the Group's total revenue of €3.348 billion, mainly from

6141-484: The product with ONE by AOL: Creative, which is geared towards creative and media agencies to similarly connect marketing and ad distribution efforts. On May 8, 2015, AOL reported its first-quarter revenue of $ 625.1 million, $ 483.5 million of which came from advertising and related operations, marking a 7% increase from Q1 2014. Over that year, the AOL Platforms division saw a 21% increase in revenue, but

6230-671: The recorded profits earned in the country. According to the country's revenue and customs service, the outstanding taxes amounted to almost US$ 1 billion. The companies involved have denied the allegations. To date, the Argentinian tax authorities have not replied to the Swiss NGO Public Eye 's request regarding the current state of the case. In its 2018 annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bunge mentioned provisions which suggest that

6319-492: The restructuring of responsibilities at the Dulles headquarters complex after the Reston move, Falco announced on October 15, 2007, plans to lay off 2,000 employees worldwide by the end of 2007, beginning "immediately." The result was a layoff of approximately 40% of AOL's employees. Most compensation packages associated with the October 2007 layoffs included a minimum of 120 days of severance pay, 60 of which were offered in lieu of

6408-521: The roll-out of WiMax services in the Haut Rhin department and launched a WiMax network in the Loiret department. Through their joint venture SHD, SFR and Neuf Cegetel have announced plans to roll out a WiMax network in the region of Île-de-France . Unlike other European countries, which have four or five mobile operators, France has only three: Orange , SFR and Bouygues Telecom , which are also

6497-409: The symbol AOL. On April 6, 2010, AOL announced plans to shutter or sell Bebo. On June 16, the property was sold to Criterion Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount, believed to be approximately $ 10 million. In December, AIM eliminated access to AOL chat rooms, noting a marked decline in usage in recent months. Under Armstrong's leadership, AOL followed a new business direction marked by

6586-506: The television-ratings system and guaranteeing audience delivery for online-video advertising campaigns bought across its properties. This announcement came just days before the Digital Content NewFront (DCNF) a two-week event held by AOL, Google , Hulu , Microsoft , Vevo and Yahoo to showcase the participating sites' digital video offerings. The DCNF was conducted in advance of the traditional television upfronts in

6675-472: The time of the buyout. The announcement caused AOL's stock price to rise 17%, while Verizon's stock price dropped slightly. Shortly before the Verizon purchase, on April 14, 2015, AOL launched ONE by AOL, a digital marketing programmatic platform that unifies buying channels and audience management platforms to track and optimize campaigns over multiple screens. Later that year, on September 15, AOL expanded

6764-608: The wealthiest dynasties in Europe. His descendants still own the company to this day. By the early 20th century, the Louis-Dreyfus family was described as one of the "top five biggest fortunes of France". The family being Jewish , during the Second World War much of the family assets were confiscated by the Vichy government and some members of the family fled to America. In 1941 a temporary non-Jewish administrator

6853-604: The world's four largest grain traders, ADM , Bunge , Cargill and LDC. Argentina's revenue and customs service began an investigation into the four companies when prices for agricultural commodities spiked in 2008 and yet very little profit for the four companies had been reported to the office. As a result of the investigation, it was alleged that the companies had submitted false declarations of sales and routed profits through tax havens or through their headquarters. In some cases, they were said to have used phantom firms to buy grain and had inflated costs in Argentina in order to reduce

6942-495: Was appointed to run the Louis Dreyfus Corn Dealers company. On 11 May 2018, Louis Dreyfus Company sold its metals platform (LDC Metals, or LDCM) to NCCL Natural Resources Investment Fund. The final price of the transaction was US$ 466 million. In December 2023, Louis Dreyfus Company made a takeover bid to acquire Australian cotton processor Namoi Cotton. In March 2024, it was announced LDC had signed

7031-680: Was bundled with Windows software. On March 31, 1996, the short-lived eWorld was purchased by AOL. In 1997, about half of all US homes with Internet access had it through AOL. During this time, AOL's content channels, under Jason Seiken , including News, Sports, and Entertainment, experienced their greatest growth as AOL become the dominant online service internationally with more than 34 million subscribers. In February 1998, AOL acquired Compuserve Interactive Services (CIS) via WorldCom (later Verizon ), which kept Compuware's networking business. In November 1998, AOL announced it would acquire Netscape , best known for their web browser , in

7120-571: Was founded in 1983 by Howard Goldberg and Dave Panzl. The service was different from other online services as it used the computing power of the Commodore 64 and the Apple II rather than just a "dumb" terminal. It passed tokens back and forth and provided a fixed-price service tailored for home users. In May 1988, Quantum and Apple launched AppleLink Personal Edition for Apple II and Macintosh computers. In August 1988, Quantum launched PC Link,

7209-561: Was near bankruptcy. Kimsey was brought in by his West Point friend Frank Caufield , an investor in the company. In early 1985, von Meister left the company. On May 24, 1985, Quantum Computer Services , an online services company, was founded by Kimsey from the remnants of Control Video, with Kimsey as chief executive officer and Marc Seriff as chief technology officer . The technical team consisted of Seriff, Tom Ralston, Ray Heinrich, Steve Trus, Ken Huntsman, Janet Hunter, Dave Brown, Craig Dykstra, Doug Coward, and Mike Ficco. In 1987, Case

7298-409: Was part of an effort to migrate the service's remaining dial-up users to broadband, as the increased price was the same as that of its monthly DSL access. However, AOL subsequently began offering unlimited dial-up access for $ 9.95 a month. On November 16, 2006, Randy Falco succeeded Jonathan Miller as CEO. In December 2006, AOL closed its last remaining call center in the United States, "taking

7387-423: Was promoted again to executive vice-president. Kimsey soon began to groom Case to take over the role of CEO, which he did when Kimsey retired in 1991. Kimsey changed the company's strategy, and in 1985, launched a dedicated online service for Commodore 64 and 128 computers, originally called Quantum Link ("Q-Link" for short). The Quantum Link software was based on software licensed from PlayNet, Inc ., which

7476-435: Was providing internet service to over 20 million consumers, dominating the market of Internet service providers (ISPs). In 2001, at the height of its popularity, it purchased the media conglomerate Time Warner in the largest merger in US history. AOL shrank rapidly thereafter, partly due to the decline of dial-up and rise of broadband . AOL was eventually spun off from Time Warner in 2009, with Tim Armstrong appointed

7565-458: Was renamed Neuf Telecom ("N9uf Telecom") and launched its first Triple Play service for the consumer market using this technology, which produced very strong growth. Cegetel was amongst the first participants of LLU trials in January 2000, but subsequently slowed or froze its investments in LLU, claiming the market and regulatory conditions in France were not acceptable. It chose to offer DSL services by means of France Telecom's wholesale offer. In

7654-577: Was shuttering Xdrive, AOL Pictures and BlueString to save on costs and focus on its core advertising business. AOL Pictures was closed on December 31. On October 31, AOL Hometown (a web-hosting service for the websites of AOL customers) and the AOL Journal blog hosting service were eliminated. On March 12, 2009, Tim Armstrong , formerly with Google , was named chairman and CEO of AOL. On May 28, Time Warner announced that it would position AOL as an independent company after Google 's shares ceased at

7743-424: Was spun off, and majority ownership was held by Hale Global. By the end of 2014, AOL controlled 0.74% of the global advertising market, well behind industry leader Google's 31.4%. On January 23, 2014, AOL acquired Gravity, a software startup that tracked users' online behavior and tailored ads and content based on their interests, for $ 83 million. The deal, which included approximately 40 Gravity employees and

7832-414: Was the signal for further consolidation among operators and ISPs in France. In October 2006, Neuf Cegetel announced that French competition authorities had approved the acquisition of AOL , France's internet access business, which had 505,000 customers. To aid its expansion program and accelerate the roll-out of broadband services, The Neuf Cegetel Group made an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock on

7921-447: Was using the network operated by "Telecom Development" (TD), a joint venture of Cegetel and the French railways, SNCF . It therefore had extensive network coverage in France, with 32,000 kilometers of fiber along France's railway lines and highways, fiber loops in metropolitan centers, and points of interconnection at the local exchange level. LDCOM was a smaller company, but fast-moving and opportunistic. Cegetel provided good service and

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