Is it me or does anyone else see the irony in this? One media conglomerate aka News Corp. is buying into the Internet, and spending cash like a drunken diva let loose on Rodeo Drive with a Black AmEx. And Time Warner, looking for an out, if that is the case. The talk of MSN-AOL makes me think that 1 and 1 don’t add up to 11. With know-nothing trouble makers like Carl Icahn barracking for short term gains, who knows anything is possible. (Carl, by the way should just stick to pillaging airlines – this Internet thing is something he doesn’t get. XO anyone?) By the way, Light Reading is reporting that AOL is ready to launch a consumer VoIP offering, that doesn’t need AOL online service, or even a computer. Sort of like one more headache for Vonage. Using AOL as a sales channel, even a few hundred thousand customers should help prop up the decline in dial-up revenues. Good move! (Disclosure: I work for Business 2.0, which like AOL is owned by Time Warner.)
Om,
If the price is right, wouldn’t it be good move for MSN to tap into the 50 million + AIM/AOL users?
AOL seems to have been spending a good deal of money on content lately.
Would this purchase be a better move for Yahoo?
p.s. Great blog.
If msft manages to convince AOL to use msn search instead of google, it equates to a 12% revenue drop for google. AOL was the single largest revenue source for google last year when google declared their earnings. Battle royal is in the offing between msft and google.