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AOL Fight Narrows To Two Players
BucksCountyCycleGeek writes "Now that Yahoo! has dropped out of the race to control AOL, the field of contenders has narrowed to Microsoft and Google. While antitrust issues continue to cloud Microsoft's bid, it is getting pretty clear that AOL wants payment in cash and not Internet stock. While Google has worked with AOL in the past, Microsoft's resources dwarf them for the moment." From the CNN/Money article: "Time Warner accepted AOL's stock when the old line media company agreed in 2000 to be purchased by the Internet service provider, a deal that proved a disaster for Time Warner's stock value. Yahoo! executives also had concerns about the valuation Time Warner was seeking and possible difficulties integrating the two businesses after any deal, a person close to Yahoo! told the paper."
Here's the 10 cent easy answer. Because to 200 million americans who all have cash to spend, AOL means more to them than WWW. Now, before you all flame me, understand that I know that a) Americans are not the world, and b) the 60 million tech savvy Americans all know that AOL has no cred. But there's still alot of money in those 200 million Americans who see AOL as their ticket to perhaps getting online. To me, there's no question who I want to win this fight. There's also no question how important it is for Microsoft NOT to lose this fight....
Ira