SEL: Google + AOL Pundit Roundup

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December 19, 2005

Google + AOL Pundit Roundup

These are the highlights Gary Price pulled from the WSJ article on Google's "exclusive negotiations". They'll get you up to speed if you're not already.

Here are a few key facts and passages from the article by Julia Angwin, Kevin J. Delaney and Dennis K. Berman (sub req):

+ AOL and Google are now in "exclusive negotiations." Microsoft has been "shut out" of the negotiations at this point.

+ Google will pay $1 billion for a 5% stake in AOL.

+ "AOL would be able to sell advertising among the search results provided by Google on AOL Web properties." At the moment, sponsored links come from Google...AOL's sales staff would also sell display ads across Google's network of Web publishers."

+ "Google will promote AOL's Web properties among the sponsored links in its search results, and will include AOL's collection of online videos among its search results. Google's arrangement to provide search technology for AOL, which was set to expire at the end of next year, would be extended for five years."

+ Don't look for a deal and/or an announcement until next week after a Time-Warner board meeting.

And here's what folks are saying:

Battelle:
If AOL goes public and is seen by by Wall Street and others as the equivalent of a cheap ticket to Google revenue, it may well pop into Yahoo like valuations - to $50 or 60 billion in market cap or more.

Battelle quoting NYTimes quoting Battelle:
"This is Google's first test as a chess player in a major corporate battle," said John Battelle...."They are saying, 'We will take some of our pawns and block the move to our queen by Microsoft,' " he said. "Until now, Google has said, 'We don't think about our competitors. We spend all our time building better products for our users.' "

Charlene Li:
It appears the MSFT/AOL deal fell apart because they were TOO similar and had too many conflicts that couldn't be worked out. ...the deal made a great deal of sense on paper but any cooperation on the content front would have been a nightmare.

Greg Sterling:
...perhaps Google is, with this deal, showing the potential to undermine the user experience that got the company to where it is today: fast, clean and relevant (no paid inclusion) search results.

And here's Greg's initial reaction to the news.

Gary Stein, highlighting this crucial NYTimes nugget:
Google, which prides itself on the purity of its search results, agreed to give favored placement to content from AOL throughout its site, something it has never done before.

Also see:
GooglePark: The Battle for AOL (HAHAHAHAHA)
via Blogoscoped
Good news roundup.

Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |

...the search industry queries new media