In the Beginning
AOL traces its origins to 1985, when a company named Control Video Corporation was re-organized to focus on providing dedicated online service for the Commodore 64 and 128 computers. The name was changed to America Online in 1991, the same year that a young marketing executive named Steve Case, above, was promoted to CEO.

 

 


As the internet expanded, AOL grew rapidly, while Case positioned the company as an online service for people who were unfamiliar with computers. By the mid-90's, the service had 10 million users, many of them encouraged to sign up by a never-ending stream of disc mailings and other offers.

 




Hollywood
Perhaps nothing served to seal AOL's iconic status more than the release of the film You've Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as two people who meet, court and fall in love via email. The film's title and the script's clever use of the site's email greeting introduced millions to the idea of the living life via the web and made AOL a virtual household name.

 

 

Web Titan
At its height, AOL boasted 30 million users worldwide. In 1998, the company absorbed its rival CompuServe and in 1999 took over both Netscape and Moviefone. The company at that point was led by Case (Chairman and CEO) and Bob Pittman (President and COO), who, in the above photo, compare notes at the launch of AOL version 5.0.

 

 

Merger
In January 2001 AOL and Time Warner (parent of time.com) stunned the business world with the announcement that the two giant companies would merge. The marriage of the internet powerhouse AOL with the media giant Time Warner was viewed as the perfect blend of companies for the new millennium. It was thought that the deal, which was valued at $350 billion, would blend AOL's large web presence with Time Warner's extensive entertainment and editorial portfolio, which includes publishing, movie studios and television stations, several of which were then owned by billionaire Ted Turner, who joined Case and Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin on stage for the announcement of the merger.

 

 

Denouement
Unfortunately for the two companies, the tremendous profits envisioned by the merger did not materialize. Analysts point to several reasons: First, the dot com bubble burst and online advertising began to fall, making it difficult for AOL to hit the numbers that the deal was based on. Second, the two companies had very different ideas of what their mutual future would look like. It did not help that the SEC began an investigation in 2002 into what it said were AOL's improper for accounting for its advertising revenue. In the years after the deal, AOL's stock price and subscriber base sank dramatically.

 




Network Operations Center
Up against the ropes, AOL fought hard to regain its standing. Addressing user complaints about spam, the company launched an initiative to reduce the amount of junk mail that besieged its users' inboxes. In 2003, the company boasted that it blocked 2 billion spam messages in just one day. In 2005, the company changed strategies to allow users to access most of its services free, thereby shifting its business model to an approach that relied more on advertising than subscription fees.

 

 

Separation
In December 2009, after eight years of acrimony, Time Warner and AOL parted ways. The new AOL would be led by CEO Tim Armstrong and listed independently on the New York Stock Exchange. On the day of the split, the exchange draped a banner featuring AOL's new logo over the front of its building.

 

 

AOL Now
Under its new business strategy AOL reaches 100 million unique visitors a month and more than 250 million worldwide. Its iconic running man was inducted into the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame. Last year, AOL employees donned yellow ponchos and assembled a gigantic version of the icon to celebrate his 13-year anniversary.