In four pages Porter's Five Forces is applied to a discussion of the merger between AOL and Time Warner in terms of it effect on the Internet giant. Eight sources are cited in the bibliography.
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Online (AOL) in pre-Internet days when the networking of various computer systems was rather informal and difficult for all but the highly computer-literate to accomplish. His goal was to
make accessing these networks easy enough for anyone to manage. Though AOL has changed dramatically since those days, ease of use has remained a primary consideration in all changes
visible to the user. Much maligned by the more "serious" services (and their subscribers) in the past, AOL has risen to be the
industry leader despite challenges and the image of being the J.R. Ewing of the Internet, the provider everyone "loves to hate." Advertisers complain of AOLs dictatorial policies, yet with
more than 35 million subscribers, AOL is an advertising venue that they dare not ignore. The Five Force Model Strategy is the hot
topic of the day, but many organizations strategic plans can be found in the same bottom drawers as last years budget, having arisen from agonizing meetings that result only in
a restatement of the companys goals, rather than in any real strategy for out-competing the competition. Though "everyone" talks about strategy, there are an amazing number of managers and organizations
that apparently are confused in the words and actions meanings. Strategy is a set of options based on sound assumptions, but Michael Porter holds that too many confuse its concepts
with management tools, expecting them to be able to substitute for sound strategy. In todays business environment that changes so quickly and dramatically,
Harvards Michael Porter argues that the purpose of strategy for the future is not so much that of determining where the organization is headed based on what the organization wants,