Microsoft to by AOL?

[temi]

The New York Post reported this morning that two sources familiar with the situation said that Time Warner is in talks with Microsoft about selling some of its share in AOL, combining MSN with AOL, which would change the dynamic of the search world dramatically. At the time of this writing, neither Time Warner nor Microsoft had gotten back to WebProNews with a statement.

The Post also mentioned however, that while talks are most advance with Microsoft, they could fall apart and that Time Warner has also talked to both Yahoo and Google although the wizards in Redmond are the preferred choice.

source/full story: webpronews.com/insidesearch/insidesearch/wpn-56-20050915MicrosoftBuyingAOL.html

[OldWelshGuy]

This would be a serious dent in market share for Google as they currently have the contract to supply search to AOL. We all knew that the AOL deal (due up next year) would change the face of search. I would say that Microsoft are in a prime position to buy in, although logic dictates that it should be Google.

MSN & Yahoo are portals, Google is a search engine (for search engine read advertising company ) It would set both MSN & Y! at odds with the AOL portal/ISP business.

[temi]

what is AOL share of search engine market by the way? I hope MS buys AOL to reduce the power of Google, its getting way too powerful

[Duke]

That's kind of an oxymoron considering that Microsoft isn't exactly a small company either.

[Paul_KY]

OWG's right. And I only advertise through Adwords to get on AOL. No AOL = No Paul's money. And I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one.

I factor traffic on google's site (adwords) like I do click fraud. They’re both essentially worthless.