After years of chaos and stock erosion, Time Warner and AOL went their separate ways last week. AOL became a standalone company for the first time in a decade. AOL's stock dropped while Time Warner's rose, as trading began on the new companies.

The demise of this merger is an important lesson for tech executives everywhere. Sometimes, a merger is not a good fit, and often two companies are better off alone. The two companies finally reached this decision after billions of dollars went up in smoke. What's left is a lean, mean AOL and far lower values for both companies.

The New York Times reports that when the merger of AOL and Time Warner took place in February 2000, the company, then called AOL Time Warner, was valued at $164 billion. This week AOL is valued at $2.5 billion and Time Warner at $36 billion.

There are still many AOL products to choose from the renewed efforts to build AOL's content and advertising. AOL has kept its assets, including its AOL.com home pages, Mapquest navigation, and Endgadget blog, according to InformationWeek.com.

For more on AOL:
- see this InformationWeek.com article

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