Has AOL decided that Google's the one?
So finaly there seems to be some progress on the long rumored Time Warner / AOL sale. Tonight MSNBC reports that Microsoft (similar to Yahoo) at least for now has been pushed to the backburner while talks with Google have become much more serious.
The Google-AOL talks would expand on a relationship which analysts estimate account for 2 percent to 4 percent of Google’s revenue on a net basis. AOL uses Google’s search engine, and Microsoft had been negotiating to get AOL to use its search technology instead.
Microsoft has been rightfully eager to displace Google and get their hands on that prime percentage as the online ad wars starts to really heat up amongst these highly tunes search competitors. I'll be curious to see whether not wanting to rock the boat with the current relationship will win over MS who has seemingly bottomless pockets and based on recent aggressive moves into the online ad space seems pretty dedicated to spend their way to the top.
