RSSReport: AOL-MSN Talks Restarted
By Ed Oswald | Published October 7, 2005, 12:08 PM
Once fierce rivals Microsoft and America Online are again at the bargaining table, according to a report Friday in the Wall Street Journal. Sources familiar with the discussions say the main topic revolves around use of the MSN search engine to power searches on AOL.com.
While a report of talks in mid-September indicated an agreement could have also included a merger of the two companies' ad sales units, the WSJ remained vague on any additional topics that were discussed.
A person close to the negotiations said a deal, if any, would happen before the end of the year. Sitting at the table are Time Warner's executive vice president Olaf Olafsson and Microsoft's senior vice president Henry Vigil.
Such a move by MSN may not be part of an endeavor to merge with the nation's largest ISP, but rather part of a larger effort by the company to put pressure on rival Google. The search giant has made several moves this year that have given Microsoft reason to worry, including the hiring of former executive Kai-Fu Lee in July, and the announcement of a partnership with Sun on Tuesday.
A deal could be beneficial to AOL as well. As dial-up at AOL fade away, meanwhile, the company has refocused around its advertising business. And a partnership with MSN could bring in more revenues than AOL's current agreement with Google.
But the door is ostensibly open for a broader deal than just search. Time Warner Chief Richard Parsons recently admitted the company did not have to own AOL completely. Parsons said the company wants "to retain a relationship with AOL that allows us to mine the value."
Microsoft and Time Warner are not commenting on the situation.
AOL is bad enough, but to team up with Microjunk, would make things even worse. Anybody who's ever conducted a search from the address bar knows what I'm talking about
Score: 0
|AOL isn't as weak as it thinks. Teaming up with Microsoft is a dead end. If AOL wants any chance of keeping a majority of their customers, teaming with Microsoft isn't the answer!
AOL.COM searches using MSN Search Engine, thats the kill line. Google is the search King, MS had to follow suit, I mean they should of had the ball rolling years ago.
Score: 0
|"AOL isn't as weak as it thinks. Teaming up with Microsoft is a dead end. If AOL wants any chance of keeping a majority of their customers, teaming with Microsoft isn't the answer!" Huuuuuuuuuuh???
Actually, there's still a possibility - albeit a small one - that the continued loss of AOL subscribers could eventually be a thorn in the side for Time Warner's online strategy if it doesn't stabilize. It's just that big, but it keeps shrinking like the head of a voodoo victim (LOL). TW is trying hard to it's credit to fight back by making much of AOL free to visitors to AOL.com to win back lost business, but if that strategy turns out to be too much too late, so to speak, then merging with MSN could be a business boom in the long run - and MSN has a potentially strong registration base for premium products for broadband in the U.S. due to efficient deals with telecoms (mainly Qwest and Verizon) along with a larger web-based international presence, two things AOL does NOT have. Not only that, but if Microsoft aligned the portions of AOL still requiring the premium package deal with MSN Premium - and AOL Optimized Internet Access with MSN Dialup - customers of both services could benifit from a combined premium package that delivers the best of both of the previous two incarnations of the previous two services. Think Encarta Online Premium meets KOL (or CNN meets MSNBC, for that matter, or even Time meets Slate.com!*) and you have the possibilities such a deal could bring.
* For the record, although MSN continues to distribute Slate.com content in house, the site itself is now hosted by the Washington Post, not Microsoft as it used to be. Still, you've got to mention it somewhere when MSN's online media efforts are concerned compared to the 90's. And not all of MSN's online media efforts were as successful as Slate was (we learned THAT from the likes of Mungo Park, et al). This is relevant today because online content originals on and from MSN could become a real possibility again if Microsoft's web property picks up AOL, so I thought I'd bring it up.
Score: 0
|