More recent history

The probably biggest merger in the media industry was announced January 10, 2000. AOL informed the public that they want to buy Time Warner for $US182 billion. The new mega corporation did dominate various media areas e.g. music, entertainment, news and publishing. The deal took place in the middle of the first internet dot.com bubble where the company’s losses reached record proportions as well.

In general many investor where jumping away from internet based stocks these days - AOL Time Warner had the highest losses per quarter than any other US company in history - $54 billion in 2002. In the meantime both companies are split again - the deal itself is considered by experts as one of the worst mergers in history, a fatal marriage in business.