Before the Internet ruled our lives, AOL brought America online with email and instant messenger.

By 2000, AOL was so powerful. It bought Media Giant Time Warner. This was a deal that was supposed to bring us into the future, revolutionized media, but instead, it became one of the messiest corporate disasters in history.

So what went wrong?

The dot-com crash, culture clashes, or something deeper?

Business Wars gives you a front-row seat to the biggest moments in business and how they shape our world,

because when your flight perks disappear, your favorite restaurant chain goes bankrupt or new tech threatens to reshape everything overnight, you can bet there's a deeper story behind the headlines.

I'm about to play a clip from the latest season of Business Wars, the AOL Time Warner disaster.

While you're listening, make sure to follow Business Wars on the Wondery app or wherever you get your

podcasts.

In the mid-80s, online services seem like a business full of promise. Fewer than one in ten owns a

computer in 1985, but that number is creeping up.

So while there are established rivals like CompuServe, there's plenty of room for growth.

CVC decides it will build an online service for the market-leading personal computer of the day,

the Commodore 64, and in May 1985, they mark

this new direction by adopting a new name, Quantum Computer Services. Huh, oh, you thought

they were about to become AOL, huh? Well, not yet.

But that moment's coming.

But what exactly is an online service in 1985?

We're not talking about the Internet here, let alone the World Wide Web.

That's years away.

In 1985, the online universe is made up of competing subscription services. They offer the stuff we take for granted nowadays, email, chat, shopping, and news. But in 1985, each service is

separate and self-contained. For instance, CompuServe users can't email quantum users and vice versa.

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