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AOL In Talks With Microsoft to Merge Online Divisions, Says WSJ

Posted by timothy on Wed Jul 16, 2008 04:06 PM
from the aol-needs-some-friends-at-smart-tech dept.
America Online Microsoft The Almighty Buck The Internet Yahoo! Businesses
Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft executives are reportedly meeting with their AOL counterparts to discuss combining the two companies' online divisions. No one from either side is willing to comment, nor has the structure of the supposed deal been worked out. The original unconfirmed report comes from the Wall Street Journal (password-protected). A few months ago there was talk about AOL teaming up with Yahoo, but that never materialized." The free excerpt at the WSJ link above seems to say about as much as this Bloomberg wire report which refers to it, and the above-linked story at The Standard; this Reuters story indicates that AOL is still courting or being courted by Yahoo!, too.
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[+] Technology: AOL Jumps Into the Ring with Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google 109 comments
mikkl666 writes "Even just since this morning, there's much to report in the ongoing fight between Microsoft and Yahoo!. After Yahoo! announced yesterday that they are testing Google AdSense, Microsoft reacted with a comment pointing out that 'any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google's hands.' Ironically, they complain that 'this would make the market far less competitive.' Both companies try to team up with strong partners, as well. Yahoo! and AOL are now closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations. And of course, this morning's news was that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is apparently in talks for a joint bid for Yahoo!"
Submission: A Microsoft/AOL merger? by Ian Lamont (1116549)
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AOL In Talks With Microsoft to Merge Online Divisions, Says WSJ 50 Comments More /

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  • I, for one, welcome our new defunct-ISP-turned-corporate-content-provider overlords.

  • Microsoft and AOL... LOL (Score:5, Funny)

    by RudeIota (1131331) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:11PM (#24219769) Homepage
    What better way to secure your future than merge yourself with a failing online business (AOL)?

    WTF is MS thinking these days...

    Welcome to Web 1.0...

    • Re:Microsoft and AOL... LOL (Score:5, Funny)

      by Cathoderoytube (1088737) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:23PM (#24219953)
      It's clearly intended to taunt Yahoo!. What better way to intimidate a company that won't let you take them over than to team up with their inferior competitor?

      • What better way to intimidate a company that won't let you take them over than to team up with their inferior competitor?

        Do they even really compete with each other? I always view AOL as an ISP, not as a content provider. I mean does AOL really make any income off their search results?

      • It's clearly intended to taunt Yahoo!. What better way to intimidate a company that won't let you take them over than to team up with their inferior competitor?

        Uh... s/Yahoo!/Google/ right?

        ...Oh, I get it :-)

    • The Google obsession (Score:5, Interesting)

      by EmbeddedJanitor (597831) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:33PM (#24220109)
      Ballmer is completely fixated with trying to beat Google, if only in the very short term. Ballmer wants eyeballs and user base to be able to say:"Yes, I beat Google". Of course, in the grander scheme of things two sinking ships are still sinking and Google is only growing in market share. Further, Google has almost gotten big enough that it is bigger than the rest of the players combined so the window of opportunity to beat Google has slammed shut.

      Ballmer's craziness is also reflected in their other acquisitions. Why would they buy http://www.danger.com/ [danger.com] which has no integration with Windows Mobile? Only to make fight with Google's Android.

      MS supposedly cost $10bn to develop (depending on what sources you read) and MS was prepared to spend $40bn for Yahoo. Surely MS should be thinking of spending more on fixing their core business.

      Hey Ballmer, if you want to survive then you need to be less competitor focused and more customer focused. Don't let you megalomania divert you from core business.

    • IM (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Nightspirit (846159)

      I'm sure AOL's IM portion is lucrative. With MS messenger and AIM, and already existing compatibility with yahoo networks, that pretty much leaves no-one else (with any significant market share).

      • What about google chat? Since this is slashdot, I'll provide anecdotal evidence. Almost everyone on my adium contact list has gchat. If they have an AIM screen name they also most likely have a gchat address. I do not know one person that uses yahoo chat. I know two people that use MSN messenger on a regular basis.

        This might be legit information, except unfortunately my sample population consists of a few hundred college students.

    • WTF is MS thinking these days...

      Not sure, but if I owned any stock in them I'd dump it now. What next? Are they going to try and merge with hotbot and lycos?

    • They missed out on Beenz.com, darn the luck.

    • Culture Match (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Tablizer (95088) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @06:05PM (#24221167) Homepage Journal

      What better way to secure your future than merge yourself with a failing online business (AOL)? WTF is MS thinking these days...

      Maybe they figure they are a better culture match than with Yahoo. AOL was about lucklaster ads, controlling user experience, inconsistent interfaces, sneaking your products into every device, and closed standards. A match made in heaven!
         

  • Hooray (Score:5, Funny)

    by genner (694963) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:13PM (#24219789)
    Hooray....Now I only have to hate one company,

    • Aw c'mon, there are far more than these two for us geeks to hate.

      I'd make a list, but most of them also have a fair number of geeky fanboys and the last thing I need is to be hunted down by a Sony/Apple/etc fanboy and have to dodge soggy pocket-protectors...

      Seriously, I didn't even think they gave you a slashdot account without hating at least five corporations and 89/100 US Senators.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by propanol (1223344)
      There's still AT&T, you know.

    • Hooray....Now I only have to hate one company,

      Oh, come one, cut AOL some slack. Sure, their service sucks, but back in the day I never had to spend any money on floppy disks thanks to them.

  • They aren't bankrupt yet? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Adreno (1320303) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:14PM (#24219803)
    ... I would have thought my penchant for snagging all the free AOL disks I see and using them as frisbees, coasters, and arranging them in strange geometric designs on my wall (ad-side hidden) would have drained all of their resources by now. So sad.

  • Epic fail (Score:5, Funny)

    by $RANDOMLUSER (804576) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:16PM (#24219835)
    Seriously, wasn't BiX or CompuServe interested? Or is AOL just proprietary enough with a captive audience to appeal to Microsoft's way of thinking?

  • Can I get a... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Thelasko (1196535) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:20PM (#24219899) Journal
    worstcompanyever tag on this one?

  • I see the future.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gat0r30y (957941) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:20PM (#24219901) Homepage Journal
    AOL Account cancellation policy for MS' new subscription based access to Office.

  • Nothing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by D Ninja (825055) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:24PM (#24219985)

    No one from either side is willing to comment, nor has the structure of the supposed deal been worked out. The original unconfirmed report comes from the Wall Street Journal (password-protected). A few months ago there was talk about AOL teaming up with Yahoo, but that never materialized.

    Translation:

    We know absolutely nothing because nobody is talking about the unconfirmed idea that supposedly sort of was talked about some time ago.

    WTF?

  • "Microsoft executives are reportedly meeting with their AOL counterparts to discuss combining the two companies' online divisions."

    I'd be interested to know what America Online's Non-Online division does.

    • Re:America Non-Online? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:42PM (#24220217)

      Hello from America On Line's non-online division.

      America On Line's non-online division handles the non-online portions of America On Line's business. This includes managing various activities related to America On Line's non-online activities, as well as anticipating global paradigm shifts on the non-online ecospace, as they pertain to America On Line's non-online geosphere.

      At America On Line's non-online division we pride ourselves on our commitment to serving your needs through anticipatory evolution and dynamic relationship-building with our service base. Rest assured, here at America On Line's non-online division, no distance is too great for us to go to ensure quality, accurate, and timely non-online activities. Never will you see America On Line's non-online division online. No sir or ma'am. America On Line's non-online division is working too dilligently offline to fool around with online fooling around.

      So we hope this introduction helps you understand us here at America On Line's non-online division and to help us better serve you, the valued customer with non-online needs.

    • I'd be interested to know what America Online's Non-Online division does.

      I think the network access and advertising components were split sometime in the last year, with talk about Time-Warner planning to sell off the former. If that is correct, my assumption (which may be wrong) would be that the "Online division" that Microsoft would be courting would be the access piece, with AOL's dwindling base of remaining subscribers.

  • What else would they really be getting from AOL?

  • My God... (Score:5, Funny)

    by mweather (1089505) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:27PM (#24220033)
    It's like the perfect storm of suck. Maybe that's their business model: suck so bad that nothing, not even light can escape.
    • I would think the idea would be to suck so hard nothing, not even the customer's money, can escape. It's an interesting business strategy and I, for one, am anxious to see if it works.

  • Everyone Wins! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by thatskinnyguy (1129515) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @04:30PM (#24220053)

    Despite AOL being in the twilight of its existence, I think it would be an absolutely shrewd move on the executive's part to merge/sell-out to another company. That way, they have their buy-out packages as a between job buffer. Microsoft can gut the company and use their data centers and such. I won't have to deal with AOL as a browser or dial-up service on people's computers anymore. Everyone wins! [except the employees of AOL]

      • Jeeze... Where did the sense of humor go around here? If I wanted to hear a comment like that, I would go back to business school.
      • The industry itself would still be dominated by companies like Verizon and Google. Microsoft is basically trying to vacuum up the leftovers, assuming TFA is correct.

  • Wow. This would be the worst software conglomerate ever. On the other hand, it means that only one company would need to go bankrupt.

    Tagged: companyfromhell.

  • A sign of the times, desperation at Redmond .. ?

  • Dialup (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DrugCheese (266151) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @05:16PM (#24220625)

    I would think for dialup, people are gonna go with AOL or MSN because those are the names out there. It's been years n years since I've used dialup or even remember seeing a local place advertise for it. The way websites are getting crazier and crazier stuffing content onto them Microsoft knows that the best way to secure future high speed users is to have them as current dialup users.

    • Microsoft knows that the best way to secure future high speed users is to have them as current dialup users.

      I don't think MS even has a high-speed internet service. And anyways the reason that 99.999% of people are stuck on dial up is because there is no high-speed internet where they live (and for anyone living outside of a rural town, the hope of getting high-speed internet is very slim)

  • YAOSoft (Score:5, Funny)

    by Doc Ruby (173196) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @05:27PM (#24220767) Homepage Journal

    "YAOSoft". Has a distinctly Chinese ring to it. Like a good media monopoly should.

  • I predict their first marketing maneuver... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HiVizDiver (640486) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @05:33PM (#24220839)
    ... paying everyone who forwards an e-mail message $245.00

    http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/microsoft-aol.asp [snopes.com]

    Life imitates an urban legend. Shit.

    • ... paying everyone who forwards an e-mail message $245.00

      And you will need it too, because the price for Windows 7 is going to be $600 for the upgrade-from-Vista-doesn't-do-anything version and the $2000 for the does-the-same-as-XP-version

  • Yay, Vista coasters! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Khelder (34398) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @08:48PM (#24222673)

    I guess this means soon I'll start getting a stream of Vista CDs in the mail and I can "upgrade" my coasters. Pretty handy in the hot & humid weather here, I'll tell you.

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