Ted's Take

And here you go; aol is being publicly traded again under the symbol of aol. It opened at $23.67. It feels good to type that symbol into my portfolio tracker again.

The company has no excuses now. It is independent of Time Warner. It can do the right things the right way. It can be totally and maniacally focused on doing what is best for its consumers and partners and employees. I wish it well. I think it has a shot to be reestablished as a major company and brand in the digital world. It has a good strategy. It has terrific people. It has cash flow. It now needs to execute with a “no excuses” mantra: Go - Go fast - Grow fast. Revel in the focus and being able to manage to Main Street and not to Time Warner Center. There are now hundreds of millions of consumers using your services and tens of thousands of advertisers that use the platform. Focus on them. Use that stock currency to acquire great and innovative new web companies to become even more relevant and add even more innovative and driven management. Show everyone what you are made of now!

And Time Warner is free of this Internet thing on the side. It can be what it wants to be too - a content company - free of distribution via its spin out of cable and now aol.

It can focus on what to do with its print based properties and its branded networks that really repackage other people’s content. This will be a challenge as well. We all will be watching as Oscar Wilde once said, “The two great tragedies in life are NOT getting what you want and GETTING what you want.”

Congratulations to the people of aol. Make us proud.