Pros
At times, it was fantastic - there was a "can do" spirit and a willingness to collaborate. Today they're still generating a profit. Still very much relevant. . .even though it's hard for folks in the biz to acknowledge that ("AOL? Ha! My nana still has her old aol email account! Snark!")
Cons
Unfortunately, an ill-advised merger followed by an unwillingness of legacy divisions/orgs to partner laid waste to the potential synergies that justified the merger. As a result - the pendulum swung every 12 to 18 months from "Spin off AOL ASAP" to "Nah - let's make this work" and back. Once finally spun off, it was far too gutted. . . .and run by ex-Googlers that didn't have an algorithm to print money for them while they fiddled around and enjoyed their newly massive salaries. When confronted with having to actually run an internet-business, most were deer in headlights. Within a couple of years, most were gone (having volunteered to leave and accept fat incentive packages. Win win - for them anyway).