A very nice analysis of the Yahoo-Microsoft-Google-AOL-NewCorp Story. http://techrunch.blogspot.com/2008/04/aol-yahoo-accelerate-talks-to-thwart.html Please digg if you are a digg user. Excerpt: The announcement that Yahoo and AOL may be closer to a deal to combine forces, as well as the possibility of help from News Corp in allowing Microsoft to acquire Yahoo, sparked heavy coverage in the major print and online news sources, with many stories appearing on the front pages of papers and Business sections. Writers were generally surprised by these added twists to the Yahoo-Microsoft saga. A front-page story at the Wall Street Journal (4/10, Karnitschnig, Delaney, Marr, A1, 2.06M) reports, "Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations, a move aimed at thwarting Microsoft Corp.'s effort to acquire Yahoo, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday." The AOL-Yahoo deal under consideration "would include the repurchase of some Yahoo shares at a price above Microsoft's offer. Taken together with a possible search advertising pact with Google Inc., the plan could give Yahoo an alternative to a Microsoft takeover -- although many analysts and investors believe Microsoft will ultimately win out. At the least, Yahoo's efforts could give it more leverage to negotiate a higher price from Microsoft." The Journal continues, "Under the terms being discussed between Yahoo and Time Warner, the latter would fold its AOL unit into Yahoo and make a cash investment in return for about 20% of the combined entity, people familiar with the situation said." The deal "wouldn't include AOL's dial-up access business," and "would value AOL at about $10 billion." As part of the deal, Yahoo "would use the Time Warner cash and additional funds to buy back several billion dollars worth of its own stock at a price somewhere in the middle of the range between $30 and $40 a share, the people said." A story on the front page of the Business section at the Washington Post (4/10, Whoriskey, Ahrens, D01, 723K) reports, "The competition for Yahoo heated up last night, as the Internet portal became the prize in a sudden and furious flurry of dealmaking among the world's largest media and Internet titans." Yahoo "is working out a complicated deal to acquire most of AOL from Time Warner, the world's second-largest media company,