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AOL Celebrates 25th Birthday; Update on Gulf Oil Spill; Homeowners Walking Away from Mortgages

Aired May 24, 2010 - 13:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good. That's Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano [SIC] -- Napolitano and a whole lot of other government officials and senators in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, which is sort of the central point for oil that comes in from offshore.

They are -- they've just done a flyover of the region, where the Gulf spill -- where the oil spill has taken place in the Gulf of Mexico. And they are having some discussions about what happens next.

I want to bring you up to speed with all of that. I'm Ali Velshi. Tony Harris asked me to say good-bye to you.

We're covering exactly what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico. That spill continues, BP still trying to find ways to contain the spill. And at this hour, we've got new information from you, a new poll which shows how Americans are feeling about this oil spill. I want to bring you up to speed with exactly -- our newest polling about exactly how you're feeling about this.

When asked, according to CNN and Opinion Research Corporation, when asked how many people approve of BP's handling of the Gulf oil leak, 24 percent approve of it; 76 percent disapprove of it.

Now the same question was asked about President Obama, the administration. How is President Obama handling the Gulf oil leak? Forty-six percent approve; 51 percent disapprove. So you can see that people are -- they're mad as hell. They're particularly mad as hell at BP, a little less so with the administration.

But what you've seen is the response from the administration and leadership and congressional leadership to Louisiana. You saw repeated emphasis on BP being the responsible party and being the party that is going to be making anybody who's lost money out of this -- this tragedy whole.

Let me give you some sense of what has been tried so far to contain this oil spill. There have been a number of efforts. We've been reporting on this. It's 35 days in, and a lot of things -- in fact, most things haven't worked. Let me give you some sense of it.

The first thing was this coffer dam. It was a containment unit. A 40-foot tall structure that was supposed to contain the leak. The problem with that is when it got down as far under water as it needed to go, it started to freeze up. A slush was created, not allowing the oil to be siphoned through a tube and up to the surface. So that didn't work.

Then there was something called a top hat, which was basically a smaller version of that coffer dam. It was a smaller unit that was lowered to the ocean floor but not used. They were anticipating problems with that. That has been put aside for a second.

Then the third one, then an insertion tube, that has been used with some success. It's -- the idea was that they would put a tube into where the leak is and then siphon that to a ship on the surface. Now, that's been used with some success, but it hasn't been sort of taking up most of the oil. And in fact, the amount that it's been taking in seems to have been dropping. No one's yet sure exactly why that's been happening.

Now, this is the one I want to show you. This is the new thing that we're going to be trying. And it is called top kill. And basically, what it involves is dropping -- we'll refer to it as mud -- it's not really mud; it's a heavier-than-water lubricant -- down the well and then follow -- sort of pushing the oil back down, working against the oil pressure. And then following that up with concrete and literally sealing it all off so -- so oil can't continue to gush into -- into the Gulf of Mexico.

Now earlier today on "AMERICAN MORNING," BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production says that even if this top kill doesn't completely work -- and they're hoping it does -- even if it doesn't work, they still have other options. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": If the top kill doesn't work, what's left other than these relief wells that are being drilled? And they won't be ready until August.

DOUG SUTTLES, BP CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Well, we do still have some remaining options both to stop the flow and contain it. If -- if the top kill procedure doesn't actually work, the next step we'll take is the next containment device which is a tool we'll place over top of the riser. We'll cut and remove the riser where it comes out over top the blowout preventer and put the next containment device, we believe, quite tightly over the top of that piece of pipe which, we think will capture even more of the flow than we're doing now.

And then we still have a number of other options to kill the well. Those include the junk shot technique you've heard about, but there are also techniques where we could put another blowout preventer on top of the existing one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right. Now, as I mentioned to you, a number of government officials and elected officials are in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, having just conducted a flyover of the -- the oil spill. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano just moments ago said this. Listen to her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAPOLITANO: We have formed an independent estimates group with the best scientists available within the federal government, with peer review by others to really estimate how much overall oil BP has now spilled into the Gulf of Mexico out of the Deep Horizon [SIC] spill. That work is ongoing. So...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right, the work is ongoing. The next thing they're going to try is a top kill. And you heard the gentleman there refer to a junk shot. Who comes up with this stuff? Well, you're about to find out. After a break, we're off to Houston for the inside story of BP's disaster control efforts. We'll bring you that after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. Let's talk to Tom Fowler. He's with the "Houston Chronicle," and he's been with us throughout this entire disaster in the -- in the Gulf of Mexico with the Deepwater Horizon. Tom joins us from Houston right now, and he has come back from having been at the BP incident command center in Houston where they are coordinating all of these efforts.

Tom, we just showed our viewers' poll about the dissatisfaction with BP and the administration on not doing enough. There probably are some people around there who think, "Why hasn't this been done?" I mean, I'm one of them. Why can't we just get this fixed?

You've been with people who you say are working around the clock to try and get this -- get this fixed.

TOM FOWLER, "HOUSTON CHRONICLE": Sure, Ali. Yesterday afternoon I was at the command center. Secretary Salazar was out there, as well. And got a tour.

On Sunday, there were probably a couple 100 people. This was in their -- in their office tower in West Houston. And this is sort of a collection of rooms. I guess I'd kind of describe it as, it seemed like sort of a gathering of geeks pulling an all-nighter. I mean, geeks in the best way.

VELSHI: Right.

FOWLER: You see the engineers with their laptops everywhere in all these different rooms with charts and diagrams around, trying to figure out, you know, everything from -- they've got one group that's looking at how to contain the spill; you had to get the well shut down. The other that's looking at the -- the -- siphoning the oil off -- from the bottom of the sea. This is different from the guys in Roberts, Louisiana, who are doing the on-the-shore stuff.

And as I said, in one room, you have all 12 monitors for the deep sea submarines going at once, showing the different work that they're doing down there, trying to get the blowout preventer ready for the top kill later on this week, probably on Wednesday. VELSHI: Tom, tell me this: I mean, I've been a business reporter for a long time. And I wonder whether, when the government didn't closely regulate Wall Street, there was sort of an assumption that they're not entirely going to -- they're not going to let the whole system fall apart.

I guess that's the assumption a lot of people have had about how the government regulates the oil-drilling agency. That they've got some contingency plans for this kind of thing happening. Right? And all of a sudden, they don't really have that and nor does the government.

FOWLER: To be fair, something of this scale, this is unusual, but it's true. If you look through the drilling plan that BP had to file with the minerals management surface, they had to say broadly a few things. This is the -- this is a worst-case scenario, this many, 170,000 barrels a day or so, I believe, is for this particular well.

But in terms of spelling out, you know, we'll have this much ships. We'll put them over here. We'll -- and then we'll use this equipment, now they don't have to spell that out. And actually, part of -- part of those requirements there in the mid -- mid part of this last decade there were some efforts to tighten that up. But apparently, MMS wrote -- wrote a directive to sort of exempt some of that.

So yes, they're not prepared for the specifics. They generally aim for a broader -- a broader...

VELSHI: Is it your guess, covering part of this beat, that that's going to change?

FOWLER: Oh, yes, definitely. I mean, already there's been a few -- I think the American Petroleum Institute has put out a few recommendations moving forward for more specific regulations. I know, certainly, there's an effort to get standards, at least minimum standards that everybody has to follow. Right now, it's very squishy. MMS has sort of set these very broad guidelines. Industry creates the standards. But there's nothing that actually says you have to do it this way. And you know, it's not necessarily the best -- best approach to dictate -- every well is a little bit different.

VELSHI: Right.

FOWLER: But there's certainly going to be a lot of backlash.

VELSHI: MMS, of course, is the -- the agency of the Department of Interior...

FOWLER: Mineral Management Service.

VELSHI: ... that -- that handles the leases. And the -- the interior secretary has said that system is going to change. It's going to be MMS that deals with leasing out and taking the royalties. And there will be another branch that actually looks at enforcement and makes sure everything is safe. FOWLER: That's right. Actually, I think it's going to be -- one of the latest things I've heard was that I think it's three -- three branches. There's the safety folks. There's the leasing folks and then the -- I believe the drilling permits...

VELSHI: Right.

FOWLER: ... different groups, yes.

VELSHI: Tom, they're going to try this top kill. Is there some sense from the people you were talking to that this one has the best chance of working?

FOWLER: Well, they're certainly optimistic. Of course, everybody has been optimistic all along from the beginning.

But they are also, at the same time, the folks I spoke with yesterday while I was there, they're saying the tentative plan is, you know, we hope to get through with the testing by the end of the day Tuesday; start it Wednesday morning. But they warn, you know, part of the reason we've had a lot of these missed deadlines for the plans is that a lot of things can come up.

VELSHI: Yes.

FOWLER: Again, mile under water, dealing with a lot of different equipment, a lot of unknowns. So they're -- if you talk to any engineer, they're never going to say with certainty, yes, it's going to happen at -- at this hour, as much as the rest of us in the world would like to...

VELSHI: All right. We'll follow it very closely, Tom. Good to see you. Thanks for being with us throughout this whole thing. Tom Fowler is an energy business reporter at the "Houston Chronicle" in Houston.

Straight ahead, more and more people are simply walking away from their mortgages. And get this: these are not people who can't pay their mortgages; they can afford to pay. But we talked about it this weekend on "YOUR $$$$$," Christine and I did. It got such a heated reaction. We're going to talk about it with you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Every day at this time we talk about your money, which also is the name of a show that my co-host, Christine Romans, and I do on the weekends. And this weekend, Christine and I decided we were going to talk about mortgages.

There's a phenomenon that's growing of people who just walk away from their mortgages. So we interviewed a gentleman named Jeff Horton. He's got two properties that are under water, which means the mortgage is worth less than the house itself. He's walked away from those houses. He says he can afford it, but he said others have walked away. The banks have walked away. Why can't he?

Listen to this. I asked him about how -- why he feels he can just do that. Listen to what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF HORTON, HOMEOWNER: It's just a decision that I've -- I've made personally to do that. I mean, it's a contract. You know, people do it all the time. You hear on Wall Street that Morgan Stanley backed out of five office buildings. I mean, why is it OK for them to do it, but I can't do it? I mean, it's -- morally maybe it's not OK, but finally it's a decision that I had to make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Now, University of Arizona professor -- law professor Brent White says guys like Jeff are actually part of a growing phenomenon of frustrated homeowners. They're frustrated with the banks; they're frustrated with the government. And they're looking for somebody to blame for everything that went wrong. Listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENT WHITE, LAW PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: The reality is that most Americans bought their house as an investment, because they were told by the government, they were told by the financial industry, they were told by the media that buying a home is a good investment. And for the middle class, their home is often their only investment.

When that investment has now lost 50 percent of its value, people are faced with the question: do I stay in this house and sacrifice my family's financial future?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right, Christine joins me now, because Christine and I both put this out on Twitter and on Facebook.

And I have to say, Christine, the responses are either one or the other. Either people say it's good for standing up for personal responsibility, that -- my argument with Jeff. Or you are -- I think we got -- got called an ass and sanctimonious and completely out of touch.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Look, there's either two ways people that respond to this, Ali. It's either we've got to stand up for what a house really is, and if people walk away, it's destroying neighborhoods. Because it's turning neighbors against one other. Why am I going to keep paying my bills if someone who can afford it just decides, "Oh, that investment didn't work out. I'm just going to walk away."

Or it's the other way, where people say, "Hey, the banks behaved hike this. I'm going to behave like this, too. If it's good enough for the big, bailed-out banks, fine, I'm going to sit here. You can go to Web sites. I'm going to sit here and for eight months not pay my mortgage..."

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: "... and live here for free and then walk away."

One of issues, too, is that some people are doing this; they're walking away from rent properties. So you're collecting rent from someone in the home. So you bought a home as an investment. You're collecting the rent, but you're not paying the bank.

And -- and there's -- people make very -- very convincing justifications for doing this. And it infuriates other people, who say this is like a sign of Rome before the fall.

VELSHI: And both of them are commenting Twitter and Facebook. We invite you to keep on doing that.

One of the tweets you -- you got was that "The banks love loopholes and remedies and so do I. I walked away from three houses I could have paid. Now I live on the beach."

Again, I -- we've heard it from both sides, some very interesting reasoned arguments.

What it comes down to is twofold. One is, if you don't pay your -- your mortgage or your credit-card bill or something like that, you might feel like you've been cheated. Many of us have in this economy. The reality is someone else is going to pick up that tab. Someone else who is going to try to get a mortgage or a credit card or a loan for a school or a car is going to end up paying a higher rate or having a harder time getting that loan.

ROMANS: Now the issue here from other -- also, Ali, that we keep hearing from people is that -- you get a lot of stories about "I have medical bills and my -- or my son might have to walk away," because they can't afford the medical bills and they've lost their job. Sometimes you have people who...

VELSHI: To me that's different. That's different. I think that's...

ROMANS: That's not who we're talking about. We're talking about people who can afford to pay the mortgage, who three years ago thought that this was going to be something that was going to return money for them in the short term, and now the housing market burst. They -- they haven't had -- they don't have a predatory loan. Their interest rate hasn't risen. They haven't lost a job. It's the same investment they had before except the value is less and they are walking away.

And that is the question. If you can afford to pay the mortgage and you really do feel like it's an investment, then didn't you just lose on that investment? Can you walk away?

And I want to be clear -- one in ten mortgage holders are not paying bills on time. They are late on their mortgage. About 12 percent of the people in default are what are called strategic default, meaning those people can afford to pay, they've just decided not to.

VELSHI: It's still a small proportion.

Christine, good to see you. And to our viewers, those who follow us on Twitter or Facebook, keep the comments coming. It's a great discussion that happening both on Christine's Facebook page and mine. Also, you can watch us on "YOUR $$$$$" Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right. When we come back, Chad is going to be with us. He's going to explain why the size of the Gulf oil spill is all over the map and keeps changing. We'll be back with that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Thirty-five days into the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's tricky because almost daily, information we thought we thought we knew the day before changes. That's the case even with the size of the oil spill, both in quantity and in area.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Isn't that funny? Now, we don't think this has anything to do with the insertion tube really working so great, but the numbers last week were 13,000 square miles, the size of Maryland. Today, we got a picture of the leak, and this comes out from NOAA. And we went all the way around it and did the square footage, and now it's only 10,000 square miles. It's smaller.

That's great. We just think there's sheen gone now. It has evaporated and it's just not there any more. That's a little bit of a help you don't have to clean that up, it evaporates away. And that's what some of it is doing.

One more thing I'll talk about for the rest of the day, too. The potential for severe weather, these big red boxes. This is South Dakota and Nebraska and all the way down into Texas, the potential for tornadoes today. But the good news is, the population density here is not like in the big city. You can see these coming from a long way.

VELSHI: You will interrupt me and let me know if you see something going on. Chad Myers, thanks so much.

All right. Bad news if you got a ticket on British Airways. Cabin crews walk off the job today. We're going to talk about the impact, the issues. Richard Quest joins me right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let's take a little "Trek." By the way, if what's going on at BA continues, the only way you'll trek around the world is with me spinning this globe all the way over to London, where my good friend, Richard Quest is standing by. Because cabin crews have begun a five-day walkout at British Airways. If this sounds a bit like a story you heard before, that's because it is.

Richard Quest joins me now live from London. Richard, what is going on now?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's a nasty, bitter dispute with a complete lack of trust between both sides. It's been going on for many months, and this is the latest set of walkouts by the cabin crew.

BA says it managed to run up to 60 percent of its long-haul fleet. But I can tell you one thing, there will be claim and counterclaim between the two sides. The unions will say they managed to hobble the airline. The airline will say they are managing to fly using least aircraft and members of staff who are prepared to break the strike.

Ultimately, Ali, there are several days, five days of strikes now. And then another day off, and another five and another five -- 15 days between now and into the beginning of the month.

VELSHI: What's it about, Richard, and how does it end?

QUEST: The last -- let me tell you, the last bit first. Badly by both accounts, as for what it's all about -- they've actually seemingly agreed as to what is it about. And now, it is all about the travel perks that BA had taken away from striking employees --

VELSHI: Right. You told us about that own the first walkout. They said if you walk off the job, you will lose all of those fantastic perks you get for being an airline employee, this free travel around the world and things like that. That happened, and now this is one of things in dispute.

QUEST: Yes. BA said we'll give you the perks back, but you'll lose you're seniority of your perks. How many years have you been with CNN, Ali?

VELSHI: Nine approximately? Next year, I get a watch or something.

QUEST: Right. Imagine if you were back at year zero or year one, seniority gone. That's one of the things. There's also disciplinary actions against some members of the union for bullying and those sort of things.

What the airline will tell you privately is that it doesn't matter. Whatever they agree to, the union will come back with something else. They believe there's a division within the union that really wants to strangle British Airways.

The union believes on exactly the opposite, whatever they agree to, British Airways wants to kill the union and wants to boot them out. In that environment, what we are talking about is a complete lack of trust.

VELSHI: Am I going to find that when we fly from the U.S. to the U.K. or to Europe because of the uncertainty about British Airways, it's going to start to fill up the other airlines. By the way, planes don't fly empty between the United States and Europe anyway. But will this put price pressure on Americans looking to fly across the ocean?

QUEST: Yes and no. Yes, I mean, we're coming to the summer months when seats are at a premium. So, you'll pay more this time of year than you will at any other time except maybe Christmas. But, Ali, BA says it's going to manage to get the planes in the sky. They may lose a million pounds a day or so in doing that. But providing they can get passengers on to any plane, whether they have to buy seats from United, American or Delta or Virgin, provided they can travel, they can get their passengers moving, BA believes they somewhat counterbalance the worry and distress.

The truth is, a lot of people are fed up through the back teeth with both sides in this dispute, and they'll tell you privately a plague on both the houses.

VELSHI: Richard, good to see you. You can see Richard on "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" on CNN I. His show starts in about 20 minutes or so. Good day to you, and we'll talk soon. Richard Quest in London.

VELSHI: All right. Straight ahead, BP is gearing up for the most dramatic strategy yet to finally plug up that oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Checking out some of the top stories we're following here at CNN.

Members of the Senate and the cabinet getting a bird's-eye view of the Gulf oil spill today. Their fly-over comes as BP preps its next attempt to plug that ruptured wellhead. It's called the top-kill method, it will shoot something like heavy mud and cement into the leak. BP says it will try and start that by Wednesday morning.

Secretary of State Clinton is in China for economic talks. But that mission has been pretty well overshadowed by things going on in North Korea. Secretary Clinton is trying to convince Chinese leaders to support U.N. Security Council action against North Korea, which is a Chinese ally. North Korea is accused of sinking a South Korean Navy ship in March, killing 46 sailors.

And somber services today for two Arkansas police officers killed in the line of duty. West Memphis Sergeant Brandon Powder and Officer Bill Evans were shot during a traffic stop on Thursday. At his funeral this morning, a chaplain said the Sergeant Powder (ph) lived every day by the police code to protect and serve. Officer Evans' funeral getting underway this afternoon.

America Online turns 25 years old today. But whatever happened to them over the years? What are they doing now? You'll find out from the guy who used to run the biggest media company in the world when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: AOL. Every day we do something called "The Big 'I'". It's a big idea that's going to change the way things are done. Well, 25 years ago and more recently, AOL was "The Big 'I.'" It was the big idea. It was going to change the world, and in many ways, it absolutely did. Let me take you back to 1985. That's when a company called Quantum Computer Services -- it was really, basically into gaming -- was formed. In 1989 -- by 1989, they shifted their strategy and people first heard the term "you've got mail," which became ubiquitous with electronic mail. By 1991, Quantum had been - it was renamed America Online after an employee contest. That was what the company AOL was called. By 1995, this company had reached a million members. They had a million members who were paying for their services.

Take that in one year from 1995 to 1996. This had grown for a million people to 5 million subscribers. They kept on growing, kept on growing, and a lot of things happened, including in the year 2000 when it became the biggest media company in the world by buying Time Warner -- or merging with Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, making it the biggest media company in the world.

By 2005, AOL became the first company in the world to win an Emmy Award. In 2006 -- this was an interesting turning point. All of the paid services like e-mail, software content, most of its Web services became free. They started to offer it free to their members.

By 2009, the AOL running men -- we're all very, very familiar with that -- inducted into the Advertising Walk of Fame. And this year, today, 25 years since Quantum Computer Services first became a company.

Now, when I come back, I'll talk to the current CEO of AOL to find out what this company is doing now, and I'll talk to the former chairman and CEO of AOL, Steve Case, who at the time was the chairman of the biggest media company in the entire world. What happened with AOL, and what's happening with AOL when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Twenty-fifth birthday of AOL today. A big party going on in Dulles, Virginia, the company's headquarters.

And I am joined by two men very closely associated with AOL. On your right is Tim Armstrong, he's the Chairman and the CEO of AOL. And on the left is Steve Case, he's the co-founder of AOL, was the chairman, and he is currently the chairman and CEO of a company called Revolution.

Gentlemen, thank you to both of you for being with us today. Not a whole lot of questions about this, because the big question -- I'm going to put it to you, Steve Case, as one of the pioneers and grandfathers of the ubiquity of the internet -- this is a company that had 30 million users.

What happened to that big AOL? The one that was ubiquitous, the one that was all about everything we did on the internet, and e-mailing, and chat, and messaging? Things like that?

STEVE CASE, CO-FOUNDER OF AOL: Well, a little bit of history. When we started 25 years ago, nobody was online. It was really the early days, and we came up with the idea of creating a service that really was easy for consumers and useful and fun and affordable.

And that pioneering team we started with just dozens of employees serving a few thousand customers, grew over a decade and a half or so, to be the far and away the leading internet company. The reason is we had great products and services that really struck a chord with consumers. As more and more people started hearing about the internet and wanted to get connected, the majority went of them to AOL. And those really were the hyper-growth years.

What's happened the last decade, on the AOL side, unfortunately some of the things related to the merger related with Time Warner, ended up instead of propelling the growth in the broadband segment, sort of slowed things down.

Meanwhile, new companies which didn't exist 10 years ago -- Facebook, and Google -- or Google barely existed, and Apple, with what they've done in music, and YouTube have all emerged and become forces in the internet.

But I think under Tim Armstrong's leadership, AOL has a chance to get that mojo back and start building some real innovation around a whole variety of consumer products and services.

VELSHI: And Tim, you've got some pedigree wit this. You came from Google, you're working now with AOL, which is really is pedigree in the internet business.

What could possibly happen to AOL today, that again, gives it some sort of big presence? And it certainly does. But what can change for AOL to make it that much more relevant in this new internet world?

TIM ARMSTRONG, CHAIRMAN & CEO OF AOL: Sure. I think there's a few things, I think Steve gets a lot of credit for.

One is the AOL brand itself. I think the AOL brand is only a handful of companies that have been able to build a global brand. AOL did that, that's a huge strength for the company.

The second is, 10 or 15 years ago, Steve really started to diversify the company. We have a really large set of assets, we have 100 million users in the U.S., 250 million globally. So we start from a really strong place to really execute the future of AOL in the next 25 years.

And then three, which is really significant, is our strategy. We have pivoted the company to focus on where the internet is going. And I think, you know, Steve saw this vision 25 years ago. I think it's still coming together, frankly, of where the internet -- of where Steve's original vision is still going. And we have pivoted the company to focus on content and advertising, because looking at the first set of the internet companies were about access. The second set has been about platforms and Facebooks and Googles. We believe the next phase is really going to be about content and future content.

VELSHI: All right. That's interesting. Because Steve, back to you. AOL was all of those things at one time. They were the platform, they were the provider, they had content. That was the AOL/Time Warner merger. I'm sure you guys have had this conversation.

What is that future going to look like, and what should Tim not do for sure?

CASE: Well, we have had the conversation. Really summarized by what Tim just said.

AOL really was the dominant way Americans got online and also around the world. And that was the big opportunity in the '90s. Now it's really focused and now everybody is online, how do you create products and services so that they can get more value out of being online and move more of their life online? And that's why we launched AOL Studios 15 years ago, started investing in content. We started acquiring other brands - Netscape and MapQuest and a couple dozen other brands to really build up a portfolio. People think of AOL, it is still a very powerful brand. But obviously the core access franchise has shrunk.

If you look at the portfolio of assets, the portfolio of brands and the reach, as Tim said, we have 250 million people globally and the fact that AOL now has its own public currency, it has significant cash, it really has the ability to build on the legacy of the last 25 years and also usher in the future.

VELSHI: Tim, let me ask you this, when you go through any office, you'll see some people who have homepage that's Google, orYahoo, or Facebook. What is the reason - what is AOL going to be? If you're on Facebook, you're there for some reasons, you're connecting with people. IF you're on Google, you're always looking stuff up. If you're on Yahoo, there may be a host of reasons why you're there, and AOL.

But what's the reason in the future, not today? What's the reason in the future people are going to be on AOL when you walk around an office?

ARMSTRONG: Sure. It comes down to product innovation and building the world's best products. This company built the world's best products. That's why they got the global audience. People will be on AOL in the future because that's what we're refocused on right now is innovation and building the world's best products A couple of examples -

VELSHI: Is that going to - sorry, go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Google is on search, Facebook is still connecting people. What is the thing that AOL is going to represent?

ARMSTRONG: I mean, this is a very important point and I'm glad you're underlining it because if you look at Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Apple, and if you think about what those companies really live and die off of it's content. Even of Facebook, for instance, one of the top three or four things people do on Facebook is actually share content. I think our ability to be the largest producer of content on the internet and to help those platforms grow and ourselves grow, and then to connect advertisers with it is a very significant opportunity.

I think most consumers in the world will end up touching us because we produced the highest, best, simplest content in the world.

VELSHI: Gentleman, thank you for being with us. We appreciate that.

Give our best to everybody behind you whose having that party. Tim Armstrong, he's the chairman and CEO of AOL. Steve Case, he's the current chair and CEO of Revolution and the co-founder of AOL.

Look forward to seeing what you guys have coming up in the next few years.

CASE: Thank you.

ARMSTRONG: Thank you very much.

VELSHI: All right. As the size of that oil spill grows, so does the outrage over it. Outrage from politicians and from the public. The story, and that oil spill gets bigger by the day We're going to start our next hour with it.

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