The Fall · Decision Forks
AOL Didn't Lose the Merger. It Won It — Then the Currency Collapsed.
The $350 billion deal is called the worst merger in history. The real story is colder: AOL knew dial-up was dying and used overvalued bubble stock to buy hard media assets. Time Warner's board took the paper. By 2002 the new company lost $98.7 billion in a year.
8 min