Google-Yahoo deal and AOL?

Chrissy17 Peon

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CNBC

You gotta hand it to Yahoo. And Google. And Microsoft. And AOL, for that matter. The reports of the death of any and all of these deals may be greatly exaggerated. Now, we get word from The Wall Street Journal that feverish over-the-weekend negotiations have yielded a new proposal to the feds: that instead of the ten-year pact between the two originally proposed, a Google/Yahoo partnership would only last two years.

The possible disintegration of the deal was widely believed to be the key factor in Yahoo re-opening negotiations to merge with AOL unit. That deal was also thought dead until speculation over the death of a Yahoo/Google partnership began to circulate. A Justice Department decision on whether to block the Yahoo/Google partnership has been expected at any day.
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AOL's earnings report on CNN:

Growth in Time Warner's movies, cable networks and cable-access services was overshadowed by revenue declines in its AOL online unit and _ to a lesser extent _ its magazine-publishing arm, Time Inc.

Revenue at AOL, historically an Internet service provider, AOL has plunged in recent years as its dial-up subscribers shift to competing high-speed services offered by cable and telephone companies. Numbers due out Wednesday are expected to show a further drop from the 8.1 million paying subscribers that AOL reported as of June 30.

AOL has been trying to remake itself as an advertising company, but the gains in ad sales have yet to offset reductions in subscriptions. During the quarter, AOL introduced a redesign that embraces services from rival providers in the hope that users will use its ad-supported site as a starting point. AOL continued purging less-used services, including one of the Internet's earliest photo-sharing sites, AOL Pictures.

Time Warner has been in continual discussions with both Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. over a sale or other combination involving AOL's Web sites and ad operations. Previous talks led Google Inc. to buy a 5 percent stake in AOL for $1 billion in 2005, though the search company said in August that the value of its AOL investment may have eroded.
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Google's 2005 deal contained the clause that it could force a public offering of the shares or a repurchase at fair market value as of July 1, 2008. That did not happen because the valuation of AOL had halved and also because Google is enjoying the estimated $70 million to $80 million it receives annually from AOL by providing search advertising services.

But what happens to Google's stake if AOL is taken over/merged with either Microsoft or Yahoo?

Google's Blogger service is already grabbing AOL Journal users:

"As some of you might know, AOL has recently decided to sunset its AOL Journals service. To help Journals users continue to share their thoughts online, Blogger has built a simple migration tool to move an AOL Journal to Blogger. We'd like to welcome our new Blogger users to the community and are looking forward to hearing what they have to say!"

Chrissy17, Nov 3, 2008 IP

WishBone Peon

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This is something to watch over, blogger gonna get more interesting with this...

WishBone, Nov 3, 2008 IP

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#3

Wow, very interesting news...
Really cool. thanks for sharing

IEmailer.com, Nov 4, 2008 IP

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Google-Yahoo deal and AOL?

Chrissy17 Peon

WishBone Peon

IEmailer.com Well-Known Member

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