The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.
NEW YORK (
) --
AOL
(AOL)
recently announced its first-quarter earnings in which it mentioned that the revenues from its internet subscription business declined by 24% compared to the year-ago quarter.
The Internet subscription business is AOL's legacy dial-up Internet access service, which has seen a large subscriber decline as better broadband products from companies like
Comcast
(CMCSA) - Get Report
,
Time Warner Cable
(TWC)
,
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
and
Verizon
(VZ) - Get Report
take over.
According to AOL, the number of domestic Internet subscribers declined by 22% in the first quarter compared to the same quarter last year. The decline is not only limited to its Internet business, but also trickles down to its search advertising business. These subscribers are the most loyal users of AOL's search portal and the
decline in Internet subscribers
affects its search advertising business as well.
AOL has a miniscule share in the search advertising market and has consistently lost market share to
(GOOG) - Get Report
and
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
in the past. Resurrecting AOL's search business amid large subscriber declines is a tough obstacle to overcome.
We currently maintain a $22.23 price estimate for AOL stock, which suggests upside to market price.
See our complete analysis for AOL stock
here
.
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