aol

AOL is starting off the week with a bang -- and a billion-dollar jolt to its financials.

The company today announced that it has inked a deal with Microsoft that will see the online firm sell 800 of its patents and their related patent applications. In addition, Microsoft will be granted a non-exclusive license to the patents that AOL retains. The deal will cost Microsoft $1.056 billion in cash.

After the deal is done, AOL will hold 300 patents and patent applications related to advertising, search, and other technologies. It has also agreed to sign a license to use … Read more

Tony Conrad and Ryan Freitas started the site About.me as a way to aggregate people's social-media content like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter into a single hub. Think of it as the personal and professional you all in one place online.

If you only get one chance to make a first impression, says Conrad, "We think it should be the whole you."

Since launching the site, it has grown to more than 1 million users. The business was acquired in 2010 by AOL, which has enabled About.me to launch a mobile app. SmartPlanet visit its San … Read more

Yahoo, Google, AOL, and Microsoft try not to let copyright-infringing Web sites sign up. Their advertising network contracts currently prohibit it.

But that isn't stopping the White House from pressuring those four companies to do more to satisfy Hollywood and other copyright holders who are peeved about online piracy -- in this case, that presumably means addressing piratical Web sites that cover their bandwidth costs through ad revenue.

A White House report (PDF) released today singles out those four companies by name, arguing that they and others should "act as checkpoints for infringing activity and reduce the distribution … Read more

AOL's effort to sell off a chunk of its patent portfolio keeps chugging ahead. The company has now reportedly hired investment banking advisory firm Evercore Partners to help strike a deal.

Citing three people with knowledge of the hire, Bloomberg says AOL tapped Evercore to find a buyer for more than 800 patents and to "explore other strategic options" -- code for a possible sale or private buyout of the entire company.

An Evercore spokesperson declined to comment on the report, and AOL didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The beleaguered Internet pioneer is … Read more

The latest in the everyone-sue-everyone patent war is an alleged infringement by Samsung and Research In Motion for installing emoticon shortcut menus on their mobile phones, according to tech news site Ars Technica.

A firm called Varia Holdings began the process of suing both cell phone makers on Thursday for using its "emoticon input method and apparatus" patent, reports Ars Technica. The company asserts that it owns the idea of pop-up emoticon menus, which let users easily insert a happy or frowny face without having to type out the characters one at a time.

"It is known … Read more

A worldwide zombie invasion is the perfect hypothetical setting for survivalist tips, and Jeff and I can't help but explore a few of them after watching this week's episode of "The Walking Dead."

After we get that out our system, the rest of today's rundown consists of AOL laying off the majority of its AIM unit, waving goodbye to the printed Encyclopedia Britannica, and a city in the U.K. shaming away loitering youth with pink lighting that exposes acne.… Read more

It looks like AOL has stuck a fork in AOL Instant Messenger.

The Internet pioneer effectively gutted the unit Friday when it sent layoff notices to 40 employees in the company's West Coast offices, The New York Times reported today, confirming earlier rumors. A former AOL employee told the newspaper that the IM unit was "eviscerated and now only consists of support staff."

Eric van Miltenburg, senior vice president of operations, and Jason Shellen, who was overseeing AIM, are leaving the company as well, as AllThingsD reported a few days ago.

AOL reportedly rakes in $50 million … Read more

It was business as usual for the U.S. search engine market in February.

Google gained a fraction of a point, bumping its share to 66.4 percent, while Yahoo lost a bit more ground, leaving it with just 13.8 percent of the market. Microsoft's Bing eked out a slight gain to grab 15.3 percent of the market and retain its grip on the No. 2 spot.

Yahoo has steadily been losing market share over the past couple of years, finally relinquishing second place to Bing in December. Looking at the hard numbers, Google captured 11.7 … Read more

AOL plans to layoff as many as 40 employees, and the cuts will come mostly from the company's instant-messaging and e-mail units, according to a published report.

Eric van Miltenburg, senior vice president of operations, and Jason Shellen, who was overseeing AIM, are also leaving, according to AllThingsD, which broke the story.

Tim Armstrong, AOL's chief, is supposed to be leading a turnaround of the company. In the past year, however, revenue has continued to fall as top executives shuffle in and out.

A company representative wasn't immediately available to comment.

AOL is now facing a challenge … Read more