AOL Soars More than 20% on Positive Q3

There was a time when AOL

stood for America Online. Now it is simply known as a media conglomerate that owns the Huffington Post.

Today, however, AOL is a company that many investors are starting to notice. The stock rose more than 20 percent after the company announced a number of positive developments, including a seven percent growth in global advertising revenue. "We just reported the best relative revenue performance in seven years and the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year profit growth, exceeding our expectations," Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL, said in a

. "We have positioned AOL for growth in 2013 and beyond with consumer and advertiser demand growing for our premium content and innovative products, video, services and ad formats." Last year the Huffington Post announced that it had received one billion page views in

. The success of that site has greatly contributed to AOL's global ad revenue. Surprisingly, AOL also announced that "subscription revenue trends" have "improved meaningfully" with the "lowest rate of decline in over six years." That means that some customers are actually sticking with dial-up. This is partially due to familiarity (some customers may be reluctant to change), but it may also be due to the price. While an AOL subscription goes for less than $30 a month, decent broadband connections are generally $40 or more. Comcast

, AT&T

and other broadband providers offer limited discounts to attract consumers, but they typically end after six months of use.