inc. formerly called control video corporation 1983 85 quantum computer services 1985 91 america online 1991 2009 type subsidiary of verizon industry media web search engine computer software technology founded 1983 ; 33 years ago 1983 as control video corporation 2009 as aol inc. founders marc seriff steve case jim kimsey headquarters 770 broadway new york ny 10003 area served worldwide key people tim armstrong chairman and ceo services online services number of employees 5 600 parent aol time warner 2000 06 verizon communications 2015 present website corp.aol.com aol inc. simply known as aol originally known as america online stylized as aol . is an american multinational mass media corporation based in new york a subsidiary of verizon communications . the company owns and operates websites such as the huffington post techcrunch and engadget 1 and spans digital distribution of content products and services which it offers to consumers publishers and advertisers . 2 aol was one of the early pioneers of the internet in the mid 1990s and the most recognized brand on the web in the u.s. it originally provided a dial up service to millions of americans as well as providing a web portal e mail instant messaging and later a web browser following its purchase of netscape . at the height of its popularity it purchased the media conglomerate time warner in the largest merger in u.s. history . aol rapidly declined thereafter partly due to the decline of dial up to broadband . 3 aol was eventually spun off from time warner in 2009 with tim armstrong appointed the new ceo . under his leadership the company invested in media brands and advertising technologies . on june 23 2015 aol was acquired by verizon communications for 4.4 billion which turned it into a subsidiary . 4 5 in the following months aol also made a deal with microsoft and acquired several tech properties including millennial media and kanvas to bolster their mobile ad tech capabilities . contents 1 history 1.1 1983 91 early years 1.2 1991 2006 internet age time warner merger 1.3 2006 09 rebranding and decline 1.4 2009 15 as a digital media company 1.5 2015 present subsidiary of verizon 2 products and services 2.1 content 2.2 advertising 2.3 membership 2.4 aol desktop 3 corporate social responsibility 4 criticism 4.1 community leaders 4.2 billing disputes 4.3 account cancellation 4.4 direct marketing of disks 4.5 software 4.6 usenet newsgroups 4.7 terms of service tos 4.8 certified email 4.9 search data 4.10 user list exposure 4.11 aol s computer checkup scareware 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history 1983 91 early years aol began in 1983 as a short lived venture called control video corporation or cvc founded by bill von meister . its sole product was an online service called gameline for the atari 2600 video game console after von meister s idea of buying music on demand was rejected by warner bros. 6 subscribers bought a modem from the company for us 49.95 and paid a one time us 15 setup fee . gameline permitted subscribers to temporarily download games and keep track of high scores at a cost of us 1 per game . 7 the telephone disconnected and the downloaded game would remain in gameline s master module and playable until the user turned off the console or downloaded another game . in january 1983 steve case was hired as a marketing consultant for control video on the recommendation of his brother investment banker dan case . in may 1983 jim kimsey became a manufacturing consultant for control video which was near bankruptcy . kimsey was brought in by his west point friend frank caufield an investor in the company . 6 in early 1985 von meister left the company . 8 on may 24 1985 quantum computer services an online services company was founded by jim kimsey from the remnants of control video with kimsey as chief executive officer and marc seriff as chief technology officer . the technical team consisted of marc seriff tom ralston ray heinrich steve trus ken huntsman janet hunter dave brown craig dykstra doug coward and mike ficco . in 1987 case was promoted again to executive vice president . kimsey soon began to groom case to take over the role of ceo which he did when kimsey retired in 1991 . 8 kimsey changed the company s strategy and in 1985 launched a dedicated online service for commodore 64 and 128 computers originally called quantum link q link for short . 7 the quantum link software was based on software licensed from playnet inc founded in 1983 by howard goldberg and dave panzl . the service was different from other online services as it used the computing power of the commodore 64 and the apple ii rather than just a dumb terminal . it passed tokens back and forth and provided a fixed price service tailored for home users . in may 1988 quantum and apple launched applelink personal edition for apple ii 9 and macintosh computers . in august 1988 quantum launched pc link a service for ibm compatible pcs developed in a joint venture with the tandy corporation . after the company parted ways with apple in october 1989 quantum changed the service s name to america online . 10 11 case was promoted to and sold aol as the online service for people unfamiliar with computers in contrast to compuserve which was well established in the technical community . 8 from the beginning aol included online games in its mix of products ; many classic and casual games were included in the original playnet software system . in the early years of aol the company introduced many innovative online interactive titles and games including graphical chat environments habitat 1986 1988 and club caribe 1988 from lucasarts . the first online interactive fiction series quantumlink serial by tracy reed 1988 . quantum space the first fully automated play by email game 1989 1991 . 1991 2006 internet age time warner merger first aol logo as america online used from 1991 to 2005 . in february 1991 aol for dos was launched using a geoworks interface followed a year later by aol for windows . 7 this coincided with growth in pay based online services like prodigy compuserve and genie . 1991 also saw the introduction of an original dungeons & dragons title called neverwinter nights from stormfront studios ; which was one of the first multiplayer online role playing games to depict the adventure with graphics instead of text . 12 during the early 1990s the average subscription lasted for about 25 months and accounted for 350 in total revenue . 13 aol discontinued q link and pc link in late 1994 . in september 1993 aol added usenet access to its features . 14 this is commonly referred to as the eternal september as usenet s cycle of new users was previously dominated by smaller numbers of college and university freshmen gaining access in september and taking a few weeks to acclimate . aol quickly surpassed genie and by the mid 1990s it passed prodigy which for several years allowed aol advertising and compuserve . 8 by 1993 aol was able to provide public internet access for its windows client users . 15 over the next several years aol launched services with the national education association the american federation of teachers national geographic the smithsonian institution the library of congress pearson scholastic ascd nsba ncte discovery networks turner education services cnn newsroom npr the princeton review stanley kaplan barron s highlights for kids the u.s. department of education and many other education providers . aol offered the first real time homework help service the teacher pager 1990 ; prior to this aol provided homework help bulletin boards the first service by children for children kids only online 1991 the first online service for parents the parents information network 1991 the first online courses 1988 the first omnibus service for teachers the teachers information network 1990 the first online exhibit library of congress 1991 the first parental controls and many other online education firsts . 16 america online 2.0 software for microsoft windows 1994 aol charged its users an hourly fee until december 1996 17 when the company changed to a flat monthly rate of 19.95 . 7 during this time aol connections would be flooded with users trying to get on and many canceled their accounts due to constant busy signals . a commercial featuring steve case telling people aol was working day and night to fix the problem was made . within three years aol s user base grew to 10 million people . in 1995 aol was headquartered at 8619 westwood center drive in the tysons corner cdp in unincorporated fairfax county virginia 18 19 near the town of vienna . 20 aol was quickly running out of room in october 1996 for its network at the fairfax county campus . in 1996 aol moved to 22000 aol way in dulles unincorporated loudoun county virginia . 21 the move to dulles took place in mid 1996 and provided room for future growth . in a five year landmark agreement with the most popular operating system aol was bundled with windows software . 22 on march 31 1997 the short lived eworld was purchased by aol . in 1997 about half of all u.s. homes with internet access had it through aol . 23 during this time aol s content channels under jason seiken including news sports and entertainment experienced their greatest growth as aol become the dominant online service internationally with more than 34 million subscribers . in november 1998 aol announced it would acquire netscape . 7 the deal closed on march 17 1999 . in january 2000 aol and time warner announced plans to merge forming aol time warner inc. the terms of the deal called for aol shareholders to own 55 % of the new combined company . the deal closed on january 11 2001 . the new company was led by executives from aol sbi and time warner . gerald levin who had served as ceo of time warner was ceo of the new company . steve case served as chairman j. michael kelly from aol was the chief financial officer robert w. pittman from aol and dick parsons from time warner served as co chief operating officers . 24 in 2002 jonathan miller became ceo of aol . 25 the following year aol time warner dropped the aol from its name . in 2004 along with the launch of aol 9.0 optimized aol also made available the option of personalized greetings which would enable the user to hear his or her name while accessing basic functions and mail alerts or while logging in or out . in 2005 aol broadcast the live 8 concert live over the internet and thousands of users downloaded clips of the concert over the following months . 26 in late 2005 aol released aol safety & security center a bundle of mcafee antivirus ca anti spyware and proprietary firewall and phishing protection software . 27 news reports in late 2005 identified companies such as yahoo microsoft and google as candidates for turning aol into a joint venture . 28 those plans were abandoned when it was revealed on december 20 2005 that google would purchase a 5 % share of aol for 1 billion . 2006 09 rebranding and decline former aol logo used from 2005 to 2009 on april 3 2006 aol announced it was retiring the full name america online ; the official name of the service became aol and the full name of the time warner subdivision became aol llc . 29 on june 8 2006 30 aol offered a new program called aol active security monitor a diagnostic tool which checked the local pc s security status and recommended additional security software from