AOL (America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, later renamed in 1989. Originally a pioneer in dial-up internet services, AOL became one of the largest internet companies in the 1990s. The company merged with Time Warner in 2001 for $164 billion, later acquired by Verizon in 2015 for $4.4 billion, and is now part of Yahoo! Inc. under Apollo Global Management since 2021.