Microsoft takes the lead for a stake in AOL

[sm]

M$ has finally emerged as the front-runner in it's negotiation with AOL, and may well acquire around 50% stake.

http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/marketinginsider/wpn-50-20051107MicrosoftTakesLeadInAOLDeal.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/07/business/main1021215.shtml

it's not final as yet, but with Bill Gates pressing on, it may well happen. Interesting thing this, as MSN sorely needs huge content networks to tie up with for delivering its PPC ads. It could also pave the way for IM integration of the three most popular messaging platforms ... something that'll pretty much end any hopes Google has with it's own offering.

The battle is heating up. Interesting times ahead

 

[Zeeble]

It would certainly make sense for Google to make some sort of bid, especially as a reported 10% of their income comes from AOL.

 

[nicholas]

Google is becoming the new Microsoft, and MS knows it. In fact, all of the biggies know it (one of the supposed reasons why eBay bought Skype for example). They just don't want to give it too much undue credence at the moment by reacting too directly (lest they give the government another case against them). But make no mistake, everyone's reacting to Google, and since AOL is a key revenue source for Google (11% of AdSense is AOL's for example), this is key for Google and even more important to MS in order to stem Google's unstoppable rise.

 

[Joey]

Jeez, I would hate for Microsoft to take over AOL, I use AOL as my dial-up, I'm sure they would make tons of horrid changes. I coulda swore my InfoWorld (mag), said it was 33% of revenues, but I don't have that article anymore.

 

[sm]

Jeez, I would hate for Microsoft to take over AOL, I use AOL as my dial-up, I'm sure they would make tons of horrid changes. I coulda swore my InfoWorld (mag), said it was 33% of revenues, but I don't have that article anymore.

No, they're not going to take over AOL or anything like that .... they'll probably just use their platform for dishing out PPC ads and promoting the several other online services that they're going to launch... and I guess it's also a move by MSN to sort-of throw Google off-balance, as the latter depends on AOL for a good chunk of it's advertising dollars.

Recently, even iVillage (ivillage.com ... one of the most popular portals for women) chose to replace Google Adsense With YPN..... so the onus is really on Google now to retain as many large publishers as it possibly can.

The only consolation for Google is that online ad spending is globally on the rise, so even with increased competition, they'll still remain very profitable.....

 

[Zeeble]

AOL will only be a a temporary loss. Google has many plans for the future, including free internet access to the masses. This will undoubtedly lead to them "owning" the internet ad market in the future. AOL will just a drawback, but even so, give MS a big boost online.

 

[sm]

AOL will only be a a temporary loss. Google has many plans for the future, including free internet access to the masses. This will undoubtedly lead to them "owning" the internet ad market in the future. AOL will just a drawback, but even so, give MS a big boost online.

in a way, yes. Just that Google's virtual monopoly in the ad market is probably soon going to end. The one thing I like about Google is that it places emphasis on creativity... and the fact that they're so very nimble-footed as a company. Take desktop search for example. The moment they realised that Microsoft was in a position to dominate that market, they quickly released their own product. And now they've even tied up with companies like winzip for distributing their popular toolbar, not to mention their partnership with SUN.

So, it's going to tough for microsoft to compete with google and win.

BTW here's an excerpt from an interesting article:

It was December 2003. He [Bill Gates]was poking around on the Google company website and came across a help-wanted page with descriptions of all the open jobs at Google. Why, he wondered, were the qualifications for so many of them identical to Microsoft job specs? Google was a web search business, yet here on the screen were postings for engineers with backgrounds that had nothing to do with search and everything to do with Microsoft's core business—people trained in things like operating-system design, compiler optimization, and distributed-systems architecture. Gates wondered whether Microsoft might be facing much more than a war in search. An e-mail he sent to a handful of execs that day said, in effect, "We have to watch these guys. It looks like they are building something to compete with us."

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,1050065,00.html

 

[mole]

Thanks for the link, sm.

 

[admans]

Thanx for the interesting info. A nice read...

 

[bio2pets]

Yes great info, its gonna be interesting to see what happens.