In late 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced one of the biggest mergers of the dot-com era - a deal valued at $350 billion. Before the merger, there were high expectations on how the two companies would fit together. At the time, AOL had a dominant dial-up internet business and Time Warner owned content but didn't understand the internet. The synergies seemed clear and easy to access. Shortly after the merger, trouble emerged. AOL's culture was aggressive and sales-driven, while Time Warner was a more traditional company. As these frictions increased, Time Warner began to push back on AOL initiatives and found other partners for distributing their content on-line. When broadband took off, AOL didn't have a reliable partner to work with and began developing its own cable business. It was the beginning of the end. The merger collapsed and the combined value of both companies today is a fraction of what it was before the merger. In March 2009, Time Warner spun off Time Warner Cable and in December 2009, AOL and Time Warner completely demerged. AOL was purchased by Verizon in 2015 and AT&T reached a deal to buy Time Warner on October 22, 2016. What could AOL and Time Warner have done to better integrate their operations? What would you have done, if you were the CEO of AOL or Time Warner

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The AOLTime Warner merger serves as a notable case study of a failed integration Hindsight allows us to identify potential strategies that could have ... View the full answer