AOL May Not Sell Stake; Partnership Only

Time Warner may not sell a stake in AOL, but instead go in for an extended partnership with either Microsoft or Google, reports NYT. This is a climbdown from the earlier discussions. With both MSFT and GOOG, Time Warner wanted a deal that valued AOL at more than $20 billion..but the parties backed off after they realized the intricacies involved, and hence the narrower scope now.

By one account, Google, which values its neutrality, will offer to give AOL an even greater share of the revenue – currently about 80 percent – from search ads placed on AOL sites. Currently Google is not interested in cooperation with AOL on IM or ad sales.

On MSFT side, in addition to Microsoft’s search technology, some options involve a joint venture between AOL and Microsoft in ad sales.

One analyst thinks the sale talks were just a ruse for AOL to get better partnership terms…

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