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Google Wants a Piece of AOL?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the waste-of-money dept.

minuszero writes "BBC News is reporting that "Google is said to be in talks with media group Time Warner about a stake in its internet service provider, AOL." Talks are reprted to be in the early stages still, but one possibility is a "three-way joint venture to house AOL's content offering, with Time Warner retaining a controlling interest." Current estimates for this sort of move are around $5bn. The article also claims that Microsoft has also shown interest in tieing up MSN and AOL services." Clearly Google's interest in AOL is their huge CD distribution system, widely regarded as the most advanced in the world as demonstrated by my mailbox.

8 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Take bets now M$ vs. G.... by AlltheCoolNamesGone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There can be only one!

    Seriously in the long run it doesn't matter who (if any of the two) wins, the fact that there is competition now will hopefully mean better products, innovation and hopefully an overall better deal for the consumer.

    More on topic I don't think it matters who buys AOL I don't think either company is going to do anything else than cross plug there own products....

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    M$ it's whats for diner!!!!!
  2. Do No Evil by Bimo_Dude · · Score: 5, Funny

    How will google reconcile any partnership with Time Warner with their policy of doing no evil?

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    "Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
    1. Re:Do No Evil by MaestroSartori · · Score: 5, Funny

      They can get AOLTW to be evil for them, thus separating them from the actual evil itself while having the evil done regardless? :D

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      Game dev and music blog
    2. Re:Do No Evil by tez_h · · Score: 5, Funny
      Uh, are you claiming that they're outsourcing their evil?

      That's a work of (non-evil) genius!!!

      Mwahahaha!! Ooops.

      -Tez

      --
      Haskell, the static-typed, lazy, polymorphic, programming language.
  3. Google's interest...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Surely their interest would be in Microsoft not acquiring AOL and slashing Google's revenue stream by replacing the "AOL" (read Google) search service with their own.

  4. The Death of Google? by Gilatrout · · Score: 5, Insightful

    AOL is like the kiss of death. Time Warner found this out the hard way. About the only thing going for it is it's IM tool and that is not enough of a reason to buy this.

    The death of Google will not come entirely because of somehting like AOL, but rather from a lack of direction. To me it seems as if Google is going 10,000 directions at once and eventually this will cause it to fracture. They got a bucket of cash from the IPO and it seems like they can't find a way to get rid of it fast enough.

    Soon enough that bucket will be empty and then Google is going to have a huge basket of toys that they won't know what to do with because the only thing they have in common with one another is that they are owned by Google.

    1. Re:The Death of Google? by LnxAddct · · Score: 5, Interesting

      AOL is actually the kid everyone wants to be friends with again. They've revamped alot of their business and are expected to have a strong come back. I know it sounds impossible, but thats what Wall Street is saying, and Wall Street doesn't just put its money anywhere.
      Regards,
      Steve

  5. CD/RW by MarcoPon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clearly Google is planning to use AOL CD delivery system to create the most widespread, giant, distribuited backup system! Maybe you'll even get a scrambled portion of your Gmail e-mails in the mailbox!

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    SeqBox