Time Warner vs AOL

I knew the moment I hard the two were joining up that AOL and Time Warner wouldn't last. The marriage outlasted my expectations. I thought five years was the magic number. They were the kind of combination that marketing and management things will work, but engineers and grunts know is doomed. A competitor to the internet and a provider of TV commercials don't have much in common. The only thing they had in common was a tenancy to sandbox their customers. That they agreed on.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when two companies split and one is just left to fend for itself, isn't that a sign of its impending failure? The wording of the news note I got this morning was vague and neutral. Not that I expected  anything more definitive.

"Time Warner will exact AOL like a cancer, leaving it to fester, wither and die, stock holder be dammed."

At least that would make for better water cooler conversation. I just don't think AOL has a sustainable business model unless it starts to compete with iTunes or Facebook in some way. That is what AOL wanted to become after all. They failed in their own special way. Maybe this is a second chance to fail a third time.