Minding Your Business: AOL, Good-Bye
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Business news now. It is official. AOL goes AWOL from our parent company's name. That's very clever whoever wrote that. That was very...</s>ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That was good, yes.</s>O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning. Good morning.</s>SERWER: Good morning, Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: The big question, of course, is: Well, why?</s>SERWER: Well, I mean, of course, they figured that the name AOL was sullying the overall company name. They wouldn't necessarily admit that. And then, there was the whole debate about which is sullying whom and everything else. Anyway, it just goes back to an easier name. The name of the band is the Talking Heads. You know, the name of the band is -- you know, it was Talking Heads actually. So, here's what we got. "The New York Times" yesterday saying, kind of making a little fun of this thing, talking about how Time Warner's management figures that if Russia could do it after changing the name back, an unpleasant seven-decade-long experiment, it can do so after a mere three-year-old ordeal. Just go back to the old name and pretend it was a dream. Now, they're also saying that it would only cost our company, this is expected to cost Time Warner much beyond new stationery. Hey, "New York Times," guess what? Our business manager said we're not allowed to get new stationery. I've got a business card right here. You can't see it; it's too small. But it says "AOL" on it. I can't order new business cards.</s>O'BRIEN: Well, I'll fix this for you.</s>SERWER: Cross out the "</s>AOL." O'BRIEN: OK.</s>SERWER: Here, I got a new card. See, that was cheap. It didn't cost us anything.</s>O'BRIEN: A dollar actually.</s>SERWER: Right. Anyway, a management consultant is saying that perhaps we didn't really have to change the name after all, because here are some reasons why companies ordinarily have to change names. No. 1, creative spelling of name requires higher IQ. We never had that problem here. Name is embarrassing or profane in a foreign language. Now, remember that with Esso going all the way back to Exxon? That was a problem. There are always thing there if you go around the globe. We didn't have that problem...</s>BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: No.</s>SERWER: ... although America Online is problematic in certain parts of the world. So, it's called AOL. No. 3, the name is too long, difficult, confusing, complicated or boring. Well maybe.</s>HEMMER: Do you think so? I got used to it.</s>SERWER: You did? You got...</s>HEMMER: AOL Time Warner.</s>SERWER: AOL Time Warner.</s>HEMMER: Pretty easy.</s>SERWER: Are you having trouble going back to Time Warner?</s>HEMMER: No,</s>TWX. SERWER: Yes. I always like that.</s>HEMMER: The ticker symbol ticks in a few months, right?</s>SERWER: Yes, it does. I always liked...</s>HEMMER: How do they say "sully" in Russian, by the way?</s>SERWER: I don't know. You got me there.</s>O'BRIEN: Get back to us on that.</s>SERWER: Yes, I will.</s>O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the tidy little program.</s>SERWER: Yes.</s>O'BRIEN: That's how Jack always teases.</s>SERWER: Is that he says? OK.</s>SERWER: This weekend on "IN THE MONEY" with Jack Cafferty, Jack's not going to be here, but I will be. A new arms report claims Syria has an ambitious program to develop weapons of mass destruction. Join us as we take a close look at Syria this weekend on "IN THE MONEY." That is Saturdays at 1:00, Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Don't even think about going outside and enjoying yourself. Stay home and watch the show.</s>HEMMER: Well, how are you guys going to do this without Cafferty, by the way?</s>SERWER: Well, I do my Cafferty imitation.</s>HEMMER: Really? Let's see it.</s>SERWER: Have you ever seen that?</s>HEMMER: No, let's go.</s>SERWER: No, you've got to watch this weekend.</s>HEMMER: Oh.</s>SERWER: No, you have to watch this weekend.</s>O'BRIEN: Just a quick little snippet.</s>SERWER: No.</s>HEMMER: That's a good tease.</s>O'BRIEN: That's pretty good, actually.</s>HEMMER: Thanks, Andy. Talk to you next hour.</s>SERWER: OK. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.