InfoAnda - Investment fund pushes for AOL strategy shake-up |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

N. Korea 'appears to prepare for nuclear test' | 20 February 2011
US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary | 18 February 2010
Protesters at Thai Parliament for 'final showdown' | 24 November 2008

UNESCO warns on Egypt heritage | 2 February 2011

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Investment fund pushes for AOL strategy shake-up |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Davos 2012 Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Summits Business Video Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Issues 2012 Candidates 2012 Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Gregg Easterbrook Nader Mousavizadeh James Saft Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Mohamed El-Erian Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Money Money Home Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Life & Culture Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Article Comments (0) VIDEO Robots flock like birds Swiss scientists have developed a network of unmanned aerial vehicles designed to flock like birds in a coordinated effort to gather information from the sky. Video Flexible, foldable, wearable computer platforms Top tech holiday gifts Electronic Arts bets big on Jedis and Wookies Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Exclusive: North Korea's military to share power with Kim's heir | 8:58am EST Banks gorge on ECB loans, market cheer short-lived | 1:35pm EST Slumping Gingrich promises sharper counter-punch 20 Dec 2011 Britain "concerned" about Falklands ship ban 11:03am EST Special Report: Phantom firms bleed millions from Medicare | 2:26pm EST Discussed 155 Ron Paul strongly defends anti-war policies 118 Slumping Gingrich promises sharper counter-punch 114 North Korea state TV says Kim Jong il has died Watched Kim Jong-un to share power 3:35am EST Tears flow for Dear Leader Tue, Dec 20 2011 Argentine protesters remember 2001 financial meltdown 6:56am EST Investment fund pushes for AOL strategy shake-up Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Blackstone, Bain plan Yahoo bid: source Thu, Dec 1 2011 Olympus ex-CEO campaigns to oust board Thu, Dec 1 2011 Exclusive: PE firm eyes buyout for Yahoo's U.S. business Tue, Nov 29 2011 Analysis & Opinion RBS’s board lessons Olympus must dump its board to save itself Related Topics Tech » Deals » Global Deals Review: 2011 Q3 » Global Deals Review: 2011 Q2 » Global Deals Review » Inflows Outflows » By Yinka Adegoke and Sinead Carew Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:47pm EST (Reuters) - Activist investment fund Starboard Value has taken a 4.5 percent stake in AOL Inc and is pushing for a meeting with the Internet company's chief executive and the board to address what it sees as strategic failings. Starboard sent a letter to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and the board on Wednesday in which it said AOL is deeply undervalued and blamed the company's massive operating losses in its display advertising business. It also expressed concern over further acquisitions and investments in money-losing growth initiatives like its local service business Patch. Armstrong was an early investor in Patch before he joined AOL in 2009. Armstrong has led the strategy to steer the company toward a display advertising and content business model similar to Yahoo Inc. Under Armstrong, AOL has spent nearly $700 million in acquisitions including high-profile names like Huffington Post and TechCrunch. But even before he joined, AOL had made even bigger acquisitions to try to reinvent itself. It spent $850 million buying social networking site Bebo in 2008, which was sold for less than $10 million just two years later. Starboard, which estimated that AOL may be losing more than $500 million per year in its display ad business alone, asked for an in-person meeting with the board to discuss how the company's operating performance and its valuation can be improved. The fund, which manages assets in the "upper hundreds of millions" is looking to engage with the board ahead of its annual shareholder meeting on February 25, when directors will be up for re-election. Shares in AOL have fallen some 40 percent since being spun off from Time Warner Inc in late 2009. Starboard argued in its eight-page letter that investors are now completely discounting the display advertising and content business that Armstrong has focused the business's future on. Starboard said the market currently prices the entire business at around the value of AOL's declining dial-up Internet access business and its net cash position. Armstrong has been trying to rapidly evolve AOL away from the shrinking but profitable business. The dial-up business is believed to be in long-term terminal decline as more Americans take up cable broadband and other faster connections. "While we understand and appreciate that the company's access business is in secular decline, we do not believe this serves as justification for continuing to pursue a money-losing growth strategy in the display business that has repeatedly failed to meet expectations," the letter said. AOL argued in a statement that it has "significantly reduced costs, sold non-core assets, made significant investments for our future, and also recently repurchased over 10% of outstanding shares," over the last two years. The New York-based company also said it has a clear strategy and operational plan which will create shareholder value. "We will continue to aggressively execute on our strategy in 2012 as we continue the turnaround of AOL." Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce, who has a buy rating on AOL, said he is broadly supportive of Armstrong's strategy to focus on media and advertising. He said after a difficult period AOL's display advertising business was starting to recover. "With the display ad growth coming through that's starting to help and their recent profits growth outpaced our estimates," said Joyce. "There's momentum building in this strategy." Starboard was spun off from Ramius LLC in March 2011 and is led by Chief Executive Jeff Smith. It describes itself as a value investor focused on U.S. small cap companies. Its investment team has previously been involved in shareholder activism with smaller medical and tech companies. Shares in AOL were up 2 percent, or 29 cents, to $15.10 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. (Reporting by Yinka Adegoke and Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Tim Dobbyn and Phil Berlowitz) Tech Deals Global Deals Review: 2011 Q3 Global Deals Review: 2011 Q2 Global Deals Review Inflows Outflows Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Advertise With Us Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Thursday, 22 December 2011
Kremlin rights council urges Khodorkovsky review |
Finnish police probe ship with missile cargo |
Analysis: Chechnya: How did Putin's party win 99 percent? |
U.N. rights head: Bahrain failing to punish abuses |
Facebook to boost privacy after Irish probe |
Don't expect the phone to replace the wallet soon |
Angry Birds finally available on RIM's PlayBook |
Analysis: Relaxed U.S. securities laws could boost SecondMarket |
Investment fund pushes for AOL strategy shake-up |
Bonobos caught with pants down on top shopping day |
Mystery buyer acquires vatican.xxx web address |
A Minute With: Steven Spielberg on Tintin and War Horse |
China slams Christian Bale for creating news |
Michael Douglas' son handed more prison time |
Michael Buble wraps up 4th week atop album chart |
Spaniard arrested in Madonnaleaks case |
Arab team prepares Syria mission after deadly assault |
Death toll in Baghdad bombings rises to 40: official |
Cairo calmer as Egyptian election resumes |
Italy's Monti faces key final vote on austerity |
Congo forces kill 24 since vote results: HRW |
Protest against power plant in S.China escalates: papers |
Norway panel split on killer's mental diagnosis: TV |
Almost 70 reporters killed worldwide in 2011: RSF |
Australian boy jailed for 13 years for murdering Indian student |
Yahoo to weigh deals for Asian assets: sources |
Elpida to seek tie-up with Taiwan's Nanya: report |
Verizon says it fixed 4G network problem |
Tepid PC sales weigh on Micron's results |
X Factor finalists back to roots with audition songs |
Hobbit trailer has film fans buzzing |
Rooney Mara preps for stardom with Dragon Tattoo |
Judge upholds extradition for Survivor producer |
Judge tosses lawsuit over Jimmy Kimmel sketch |
Michael Douglas' son handed more prison time |
Michael Buble wraps up 4th week atop album chart |
Exclusive: Pakistan army wants Zardari out but not a coup |
2011 Year of the Tyrant, 2012 ominous for Syria, Iraq |
Italy parliament votes to seal austerity budget |
Russia's Medvedev tries to appease protesters |
Yemen protesters demand Saleh trial, denounce government |
French lawmakers back genocide bill, Turkey recalls envoy |
New Afghan opposition coalition says can check Karzai |
Apple nears German court rebuff in row with Samsung |
New iPhone? No thanks, say cash-conscious Europeans |
China tightens rules for microblog publishers: Xinhua |
EBay buys German technology company |
German patent firm sues retailers to halt HTC sales |
Stonehenge app offers virtual solstice tour |
Evernote memory aid apps recall people, meals |
Zhang, Bale blossom together on Flowers of War |
BookTalk: John Brown's Midnight Rising |
George Michael released from Vienna hospital: report |
British folk group mixes rural traditions with Christmas |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01