AOL receives bids for German ISP business

Posted Aug 29th 2006 2:54PM by Howard Tsung
Filed under: International Markets, Newspapers, Magazines, Internet, Competitive Strategy, Time Warner (TWX)

In the post-Icahn aftermath, bids are starting to come in for AOL's German ISP business.

Earlier in the year, AOL had reviewed with its bankers (Citigroup) selling off AOL Europe completely. As the high-profile battle between Icahn and Parsons concluded late February with an agreement by Time Warner to repurchase $20 billion in stock, AOL is now in the midst of developing a new strategy rather than looking at a fire sale of its assets.

In line with that, AOL Europe is likely off the block, in that AOL's strategy has been to move away from the ISP business but stay fully committed to a strong net presence. The German ISP business is the largest of AOL's European ISP holdings and its initial price target was 600 million Euros (latest spot rate).

AFX via Forbes reports today that offers have come in under that price, in the 400-450 million Euro range.

Conflictingly, Reuters carried an article which placed the bids "well over" $766 million (using a conservative 1.25 EUR/USD = 612.8 million Euros), essentially saying that there has been a bid "well over" the 600 million Euro initial target.

Tags: aol, germany, isp