Besides the new plans for AOL in U.S., some details on the future of AOL in Europe, especially in UK, France and Germany, also came out during the announcements today. Some numbers from earnings first:
—In Europe, the AOL service had 5.6 million members as of June 30, 2006 a decrease of 218,000 from the previous quarter and a decline of 571,000 from last year’s quarter. In terms of profits, AOL Europe was around $30 million U.S. for the quarter.
—Second, AOL expects to reach deals to sell its European ISP business by this autumn, said Miller in the call. “The sale process, which separately covers our operations in the UK, Germany and France is progressing, and we are hopeful that we have reached agreements with the winning parties sometime in the fall,” said Miller. It will still operate the portals.
—In France, Neuf Cegetel, France’s second-largest fixed-line telecoms provider, is in exclusive talks to acquire AOL’s access business. AOL would retain its Internet portal operations in France and provide them to Neuf Cegetel customers through a partnership contract. The sale price is about 300 million euros ($384.1 million), the story says citing sources.
—This Frech announcement is a blow to rivals Telecom Italia, Iliad and Deutsche Telekom, which had expressed interest, this Reuters story says.
—In UK, second-round bidders include BSkyB, Carphone Warehouse and France Telecom’s Orange unit, as we’ve detailed here before.
—Bidders for the German unit include include Versatel, freenet.de, United Internet, Telecom Italia and KPN, the story says.
—Final bids for the German and UK business are both due in mid August.