Google Close to Big AOL Payoff

by admin December 17, 2005 at 8:21 am

internetnews.com has confirmed that AOL and Google are in exclusive negotiations for a piece of the struggling Web property.

A person close to the companies said that Microsoft had been a party to the discussions, but was notified that it was no longer in the running, and that Google was the preferred partner.

How much is AOL worth?

About $20 billion, according to a report in the “Wall Street Journal.”

An article in today’s WSJ states the deal calls for the the search goliath to pay $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in AOL.

The agreement would deepen the advertising partnership between the two, letting AOL sell ads against search results on AOL.com that are provided by Google. At the same time, AOL would sell display ads on Google’s AdSense program, which shows ads on other Web sites and blogs.

Full article: internetnews.com