America Online 2014 Annual Report Download - page 18

ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Introduction
AOL Inc. (referred to herein as “AOL”, the “Company”, “we”, “our” or “us”) is a leading global media
technology company with a substantial worldwide audience and a suite of digital brands, products and services
that we offer to consumers, advertisers, publishers and subscribers. We are focused on attracting and engaging
consumers by creating and offering high quality branded online digital content, products and services and
providing valuable advertising services on both our owned and operated properties and third-party websites.
We market our offerings to advertisers on both AOL Properties and on third party internet sites (the “Third
Party Properties”). AOL Properties include our owned and operated content, products and services in the
Membership Group and Brand Group segments, which are each described in further detail below. AOL
Properties also include co-branded websites owned or operated by third parties for which certain criteria have
been met, including the requirement that the internet traffic has been assigned to us. Our AOL subscription
service, which we offer consumers in the United States for a monthly fee, is a valuable distribution channel for
AOL Properties. Through AOL Platforms we provide third party publishers and our AOL Properties with
premium products and services, such as premium formats, video advertising and content personalization,
intended to make their websites and applications attractive to advertisers as well as the ability to
programmatically sell advertising inventory. Through AOL Platforms, we provide advertisers the ability (i) to
programmatically plan, buy and measure advertising across all screens and advertising formats using self-serve
technology or our managed services and (ii) to buy advertising inventory using traditional advertising sales
methods. We also provide advertisers and other content providers the ability to syndicate and measure video
viewing and engagement activity at scale across all internet-enabled devices (i.e., desktop, mobile and internet-
enabled television).
We are in the midst of executing a multi-year strategic plan to reinvigorate growth in our revenues and
profits by taking advantage of the continuing migration of advertising, commerce and information to the internet
and digital devices. Our strategy is to focus our resources on AOL’s core competitive strengths in technology
platforms, subscription services, and content and advertising, including video content and advertising formats
while expanding the distribution of our premium content, and our product and service offerings on multiple
platforms and digital devices, including on internet-enabled televisions, smartphones and tablets. This approach
includes our continued focus on our video content production and distribution and our video advertising
offerings. We continue to reinvigorate AOL’s culture and brand by prioritizing the consumer experience, making
greater use of data-driven insights, encouraging innovation and optimizing our advertising technology to create
an end-to-end open data platform.
AOL was founded in 1985 and later merged with Time Warner Inc. (“Time Warner”) in 2001. In the fourth
quarter of 2009, the board of directors of Time Warner approved the complete legal and structural separation of
the Company from Time Warner (the “spin-off”), following which we became an independent, publicly-traded
company. On November 2, 2009, the Company converted from AOL Holdings LLC, a limited liability company
wholly owned by Time Warner, to AOL Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly owned by Time Warner. The spin-
off occurred on December 9, 2009.
During 2014 we completed acquisitions that added many important components to our advertiser and
publisher platform. In January 2014 we acquired Project Rover, Inc. (“Gravity”), a company that offers multi-
screen content optimization and personalization using patented technology that creates interest graphs based on
individuals’ interests, preferences and habits and that allows publishers to offer a tailored and relevant selection
of editorial and advertising content to readers. In May 2014 we acquired Convertro, Inc. (“Convertro”), a leading
multi-touch attribution modeling technology company. In December 2014 we acquired Vidible, Inc. (“Vidible”),
a programmatic video exchange platform for discovering and distributing video content that will enable licensees
and licensors to distribute and monetize video content across all internet-enabled devices.
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