Many Suitors, and Many Pitfalls, as AOL Seeks a Partner

[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Siklos]
Microsoft has emerged as the front-runner in the talks surrounding the potential sale of a stake in America Online. Were Microsoft to prevail, it would do so with an investment and partnership that includes folding its MSN Internet service into a venture with AOL. But Google remains interested in a deal that may also involve Comcast, while Yahoo and the News Corporation are in the wings. While the AOL sweepstakes is predicated on newfangled concepts like developing new models for advertising and melding software applications with entertainment products, what is afoot is roughly the cyberspace equivalent of two of the Big Four broadcast television networks trying to merge to dominate prime time. According to comScore Media Metrix, Time Warner's sites attracted 119 million users in September, with most viewing AOL and related Web sites. That made Time Warner the second-most-visited Internet destination in the United States, after Yahoo sites with 123 million. MSN and other Microsoft sites attracted 114 million unique users, while Google attracted 87.6 million. An AOL-MSN deal would catapult the resulting venture into the No. 1 spot, and thus make it especially attractive to advertisers seeking broad audiences.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/technology/07aol.html
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* Microsoft lead suitor for AOL
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...