AOL attempts a comeback
Published: 04 May 2004 10:45 BST
Listening to Don Logan, it's easy to forget that barely a year ago, investors were ready to storm the gates of AOL Time Warner's Rockefeller Centre headquarters to protest at one of the greatest corporate failures in history.
These days, life at Time Warner (note the name change) is getting back to normal. The media giant surprised Wall Street last week, when it reported earnings that far surpassed expectations. Its debt no longer flirts near junk bond levels, and most of its businesses are growing at a healthy rate.
And then there's America Online. Despite showing solid gains last quarter, the division still struggles from losses in its premium dial-up service and is still losing online advertising dollars.
Logan, who splits the responsibility of running Time Warner's business divisions with Jeffrey Bewkes, is charged with turning around AOL. While other high-profile businesses such as Time Warner Cable also fall under his wing, Logan's tenure will be marked by whether AOL can regain its former glory or ultimately opt to dump the business. Time Warner says it plans to keep AOL -- at least for now.
Analytical, empirical and no-nonsense, Logan exemplifies an executive pedigree that was once written off as "old school" during the Internet boom. Instead, the Alabama native employs a measured approach, combined with a Southern sensibility, to manage his businesses.
In Time Warner's new Columbus Circle home overlooking Central Park, Logan expounded on his outlook of the company a day after AOL announced a distribution deal with Road Runner, ending years of intercompany gridlock over how to work together.
Up until yesterday, it seemed as if the Road Runner side and the AOL side were barely on speaking terms. And all of a sudden, out comes this deal.
As it was trying to migrate into broadband, AOL had a strategic issue to deal with. On the narrowband side, it had provided access. AOL had a relationship with the customer, and when it looked at its plans going forward, that's the way it wanted to operate in the broadband world. It was looking at broadband in the same way it ran its business on narrowband.
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