[throwaway088]

Before people go all ballistic, please remember that yahoo and AOL make $700 million from Mail and a billion dollars from search. AOL sells huge number of paid dialup based email accounts(for older people though). So the sale price is approximately two years of revenue. Apollo is getting it cheap!

[perardi]

“AOL sells huge number of paid dialup based email accounts”

Do they really?

I am not being sarcastic. I cannot find a recent reference to this (everything seems to be from 2015), but given my experience getting my aunt away from AOL email: it seems horribly plausible.

[runako]

> https://plans.aol.com/join?regtype=new

"If you're interested in purchasing a plan that includes dialup service, please call 1-800-827-6364 (Mon-Fri: 8am-12am ET; Sat: 8am-10pm ET)"

I would not be surprised to learn that they still have millions of dial-up customers & millions on the new non-dialup plans.

[Nextgrid]

Is dial-up even usable nowadays considering how heavy webpages have become?

[perardi]

Ah, and here, a source!

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/03/aol-1point5-million-people-s...

As to dialup itself…

“The number of dial-up users is now “in the low thousands,” according to a person familiar with the matter.”

…but, yeah, it seems 1.5 million discerning customers are basically paying for AOL mail.

“There are about 1.5 million monthly customers paying $9.99 or $14.99 per month for AOL Advantage, said another person, who asked not to be named because the information is private.”

Which: nice business if you can get it.

[throwaway088]

You have to read financial reports of aol if you can get hold of it. AOL doesn't want this info to be too widely known. Then all the old people will realize they are paying $25 per month for something that they can get for free!

[nr2x]

Or Verizon already knows tracking-based ads are not long for this world and got out before the adtech crash.

[mbesto]

> Apollo is getting it cheap!

And Apollo will gut these entities for every dollar that they can.

[gscott]

That would be the best thing maybe some of them will have longer and better lives, finally escape being trapped.

[sswaner]

Not their model. https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-apollos-new-ceo-insurance-i...