AOL + MSN?
A New York Times article by Saul Hansell hints at why AOL and Micrsoft’s MSN web portal and ISP may be strategic.
[tease]
“The most elaborate proposal being discussed would involve combining America Online with the MSN Internet portal and dial-up Internet business, creating the world’s largest Internet company. The venture’s Web search would be provided by Microsoft. That combination would be a significant blow to Google, which provides the Web search on AOL’s services. This year, 11 percent of Google revenue came from advertising it placed on AOL sites.
“A combination of AOL and MSN would have 18 percent of the search market in the United States, according to Nielsen NetRatings, making it third after Google, with 46 percent, and Yahoo, with 23 percent.”
[tease]
“Microsoft sees in Google the potential to offer a variety of Internet services, using Google’s vast network of servers, making it less necessary for people to buy Microsoft software or even computers with the Microsoft Windows operating system. Moreover, Google could offer free desktop software as well, supported by its network of advertisers.”
[via The New York Times]
September 16th, 2005 at 8:41 am
Could somebody dig up the old Time Warner AOL merger articles about how the merging of new media with old media would create the biggest thing thing since the industrial revolution?