AOL, which unlike most Internet companies actually makes money and a lot of it, brings to the table a clutch of Web companies, like CompuServe and Netscape, and 20 million online subscribers. The new company brings closer the grail of all Internet companies, a sort of unified field theory of communications where news, entertainment, information, advice come cascading through a single screen as easy to use as a television. AOL chief Steve Case, the computer guy, wore standard banker's blue mergerwear and a power tie. The merger still has a year's worth of hurdles to negotiate. It looks great on paper, but not all such deals work out.
Corporate cultures can and do clash.
And this merger, after all, does push forward into unexplored territory. But if all goes as now planned, AOL's takeover of Time Warner may well be remembered as the day the Internet came of age. E.W. Scripps Publications , All Rights Reserved. Site users are subject to our User Agreement . We also have a Privacy Policy .