AOL Making Headlines
After weeks of intense negotiations, Time Warner will not be selling their stake in America Online after all.
Instead, the publishing and media giant is sesking to enhance its revenue partnership with Google (GOOG stock considerations are involved), or establish a new equity relationship with Microsoft and walk away from Google altogether. The New York Times reports that Google's terms do not involve any kind of investment in AOL. Rather, Google would extend the 80 percent cut it currently gives AOL for the revenue generated by its search technology on AOL's pages, while possibly agreeing to drive traffic from its sites directly to AOL.com. The Google / Time Warner negotiations, rumored at one point to involve Comcast Corp., no longer include any third parties, instant messaging, or ad sales.
Time Warner negotiations with Microsoft (MSN), on the other hand, may include joint venture in ad sales and instant messaging, as well as a minority stake in AOL.
Time Warner was asking for apparently wanted $20 billion for AOL, but both Google and Microsoft have backed away from ownership at that price, not to mention potential litigation concerns.
The Wall Street Journal that AOL parent Time Warner is close to securing a partnership with Microsoft/MSN. The agreement would include a joint venture in advertising services, including MSN Internet search and online ad sales across AOL.com and MSN. The MSN AdCenter, that is currently undergoing beta testing will be rolled out enterprise wide to carry the new online advertising platform.
The joint venture with MSN would end AOL's long-standing keyword search partnership with Google, which provides the Time Warner unit with search technology, advertising services, and huge revenues. Meanwhile, hedge fund investor Carl Icahn is preparing a proxy fight with the Time Warner board that he hopes will split legally plagued Time Warner into four distinct companies--of which AOL would be one. Icahn is said to be dissatisfied with mismanagement at AOL and wants to shake the foundations with new management teams and new seperate companies.
Also a split of AOL into four seperate companies could limit lawsuit settlements and legal ramifications for Time Warner caused by the large number of lawsuits involving AOL.
Speaking of AOL Lawsuits
AOL being Revisited By Familiar Lawsuit
It appears that AOL is in legal trouble once again, according to the Associated Press. A lawsuit filed in the St.Clair County Circuit Court in Illinois by 10 AOL customers in six states accuses the Time Warner unit of illegally creating secondary accounts for them without consent and then billing them illegally (as first reported months ago on this organic seo blog).
This new AOL lawsuit could potentially cover hundreds of thousands of AOL subscribers. The lawsuit claims that not only did AOL confuse and deceive these customers, but it also refused to give refunds to those who questioned the unwarranted fees. The suit is akin to more than a dozen other pending lawsuits filed in state and federal courts around the country. AOL flatly denies the charge, calling it a "rehash" of an old lawsuit that is no longer of any legal value.
Is it true that Microsoft is using their extensive world court legal experiences as leverage in their negotiations to partner/merge with AOL.
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