Good News: The Soul of AOL Time Warner Is AOL

摘要

The morning of Jan. 10, I woke up my wife to say goodbye for the day. Half asleep, Charlotte told me she'd had a dream that AOL was merging with Time Warner. We both chuckled. I went to work and found out she had dreamed reality! That caps quite a string of AOLity in our family. It started with a column I wrote in FORTUNE'S March 17, 1997, issue called "A Few Kind Words for AOL." I predicted that AOL would be a $4-billion-a-year company by 2000. I was right: AOL generated nearly $4 billion in sales in 1998 and well over $5 billion last year. I put my money behind my words by buying 100 shares of AOL for $4,200. After splits, that investment is now 1,600 shares of AOL worth about $100,000.