AOLTW's board of directors is planning to vote to remove the AOL from the corporate name when they meet on Thursday. Touted as the heart of the company at the disastrous merger, this name shift is a correction of sorts, signaling that to the corporation, the public, and most important, to the analysts, AOL is a nice little product that belongs to a big media conglomerate, nothing more.
Ironically, this downgrade is taking place at a point when they've finally created a really new client with nice features. Even better, many of my friends on the inside have all expressed the sense that things are now on the upswing and they're finally getting the business on track. Either they're poisoning the drinking water down there in Dulles, or many people actually do feel newly encouraged.