Even after (or maybe because of?) spending the first half of this year making headlines for layoffs, AOL still has money. At least, enough to put its logo across a hillside "villa party" in one of the swankiest places in the world.
The party shot was snapped during this week's Cannes Lions advertising festival, which hosts one of the worst industries in the world at one of the best places in the world. AOL's fete sure looks more enjoyable than Yahoo's.
While this article is typical Valleywag/Gawker/Biddle's Wet Fart Smelling Face, AOL's stock has been one of the best of any major tech stock in the last 24 months. Business is very good (despite Patch layoffs). Why not go after the tech cos that aren't making any actual money but still spending millions at Cannes?
That's true, but "restructuring" (firing a lot of people) has been instrumental there.
And why choose ad tech as one of the "worst industries in the world"? From a purely financial standpoint, companies like AOL, Yahoo!, Microsoft's digital division, Google, etc (the established ones) have some of the highest profit margins of any industry.
You're better served (and would probably get more pageviews) calling out the underbelly of the industry. There are tons of bullshit ad tech companies and individuals who deserve your scorn. AOL (and frankly Yahoo!, MSN, etc) isn't one of them.
"Aol" is French for "large decorative garden vase."
