Bob Goudreau said
Time-Warner did not buy AOL; rather, AOL bought Time-Warner-Turner
> in a spectacular (for AOL shareholders) exploitation of the very top
> of the stock [bubble]
Very true. Mind you, aol had always played games with its financials and never generated any real cash flow. Time warner offered what aol lacked: a large cash flow. But, while aol had little debt, not surprising since it had few fixed assets, time warner had colossal debt from the purchases by steve ross of time-life and warner brothers movie studios. The idea was that time warner would provide the cash flow for further growth while aol represented the future of business.
-er