AOL just sold for $1 billion, a staggering 99% drop from its peak valuation, and the story behind it is one of the biggest rises and falls in internet history. In the 1990s, AOL ruled the online world with 26 million subscribers, mailing out over a billion free trial CDs and making dial-up internet a household name. But as DSL, cable broadband, and eventually fiber optic took over, AOL failed to adapt and quickly lost its dominance. The company’s desperate $165 billion merger with Time Warner in