Dotcom Survivor Retains Print – June 2016 M&A Activity

It’s a long way from the year 2000 when AOL famously bought Time Warner, then the largest media and entertainment company in the world, and also the publisher of many printed titles. The widely-touted and lauded logic behind the deal was that the new delivery channel called the “Internet” badly needed the rich content of old-media stalwarts like Time, Warner Music, CNN, HBO and others. With sky-high valuations that Internet companies enjoyed at the time (now derided as the “dotcom bubble”), AOL emerged as the dominant player in the deal with Time Warner. AOL shareholders received a greater percentage of shares in the combined company. AOL’s founder Steve Chase landed the top spot as Chairman of the merged company.