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AOL, Yahoo Mulling Merger

Posted by Soulskill on from the do-i-get-a-vote dept.

Mike Zahalan writes with an update to last month's news that AOL and various private equity firms were exploring the possiblity of buying Yahoo. While talks between the companies have not officially gone much deeper, AOL has now hired financial advisers to analyze their options. Still, Kara Swisher writes at All Things Digital that the complexity of a deal between the two companies will be the biggest obstacle they have to overcome. "Among the issues being grappled with: Onerous tax implications around a variety of deals; a need for complete cooperation from too many players; and the realization that a hookup of AOL and Yahoo might cause more problems than it solves. 'It looks great conceptually and everyone gets all hot and bothered,' said one prominent investor who did his own strategizing about Yahoo and AOL. 'But when you actually do the numbers, you hit a pretty big wall of impossible.'"

15 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Why Merge? by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because 0+0=1!

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:Why Merge? by Meshach · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because 0+0=1!

      The merge will pump up all involved stock and make a lot of money for the stockholders. It may decimate the company's future but, as we learned from the SCO fiasco, that is a secondary concern.

      --
      "Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
      Aldous Huxley
    2. Re:Why Merge? by couchslug · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Why Merge!"

      It's a "user experience" experiment to create the proverbial Vortex of Suck, a horror calculated to make Cthulhu slouch away screaming in fear.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    3. Re:Why Merge? by Pharmboy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Because 0+0=1!

      But only for sufficiently large values of 0.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    4. Re:Why Merge? by MrEricSir · · Score: 3, Funny

      When this was first news a while back I remember reading on Fark that this will merge "the site that your parents use with the site that your grandparents use."

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  2. Your Free Financial Analysis: by swschrad · · Score: 3, Funny

    if you burn the money instead, it keeps you warm. if you buy Yahoo, you gain nothing.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  3. We'll call it Yaol (pronounced yowl) by Shikaku · · Score: 3, Funny

    We'll call it Yaol (pronounced yowl) and call it a day because that's what the reaction will sound like.

  4. Wait... by Stregano · · Score: 3, Insightful

    AOL is still around outside of AIM? And they have enough money to buy another company?

    --
    The world is how you make it
    1. Re:Wait... by Captain+Spam · · Score: 2, Funny

      AOL is still around outside of AIM? And they have enough money to buy another company?

      Well, it IS only Yahoo they're considering buying.

      --
      Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
    2. Re:Wait... by Cwix · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My old room mates parents still pay aol 10 dollars a month. The kicker is they have Time Warner broadband that they pay 50 a month for. Trying to explain this to them results in the deer in a headlight syndrome.

      They are also trying to repair their Pentium 2 computer, instead of taking the two year old Core2Duo that my old room mate tried to give them.

      --
      You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
    3. Re:Wait... by Macrat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ever heard of Engadget? TMZ? AOL owns them.

      That drops AOL's value even more.

  5. Another garbage truck collision? by pyrr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I recall an IT industry commentator comparing on the hp-Compaq merger as two garbage trucks colliding. I thought that was a reasonably accurate analogy.

    But these two companies are kind of...worse. Maybe two honeywagons colliding? It'll take a while to get all that stink mopped-up!

  6. Re:What will be the new name? by Genda · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nope... it'll be named "yaHOL", and sound much like the yelling Governor Schwarzenegger makes the day after eating Habanero Peppers...

    Or perhaps its the sound of the black HOL formed when two infinitely dense, dying corporate stars accrete and collapse under the weight of their own ineptitude. This may well be the perfect opportunity to measure irony waves or maybe even determine the speed of stupid in a corporate vacuum.

  7. Ugh... by bradgoodman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Two dead bodies sewn together make a Frankenstein...

  8. First, you get the money, then, you get the yahoo. by Count+Fenring · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, is AOL's actual plan to just keep buying other companies who haven't been relevant since the late 90s, until such time as the massive collection of 90s nostalgia somehow changes, alchemically, into something worthwhile?