Carphone Warehouse acquires AOL ‘Broadband’

As reported by Sam Sethi over at Techcrunch UK, mobile telephone giant the Carphone Warehouse has just acquired the internet “access” business from AOL UK. The purchase from AOL’s parent, Time Warner was reported to come in at around £370m making Carphone Warehouse (CPW) the third largest ISP in the UK with over 1 million broadband subscribers. AOL UK will continue to exist as a business unit but will be specialising in content and portal licensing only. AOL was once a monolithic brand that innovated internet access delivery and became a household name because of their huge TV advertising budgets and promises of ‘sage’ surfing for families. However, it’s only a matter of time before AOL ceases to exist in the UK – they no longer have much to offer an information hungry and brand-disloyal audience.