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Microsoft in Talks To Partner With AOL

L

lordmac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 15, 2004
241
0
Santa Cruz, CA
Linkness

They have been having secret up till now talk about Microsoft buying AOL or a part of it. This could have a huge effect in the internet company business world. I know many of you hate AOL for one reason or other but they are still a huge player in the business, they make by far massively more money then yahoo, msn(the internet part) , or google. They are also make the most many for google then any other relationship google has. Also AOL's instant messaging services (ICQ, AIM) have by far the most users so if msn bought them it really puts the yahoo and google talk far behind. This could also provoke a bidding war between Google and MSN as Google is also very much poised to buy AOL though as far as the public knows they aren't in talks. Then general mood amongst aol employee's is that they want to get away from time warner as soon as they can although most would prefer to be bought by google. I personally would much rather google buys aol then msn. If msn obtains AOL it gives them a huge reach in the internet world, which as a mac fanboy I don't like the idea of. Plus I can't stand that retarded butterfly. :p


Your Thoughts.....
 
mcarnes said:
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

Microcrap is so stupid.
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why? if they acquired AOL they would become a monster on the internet. they could effectively harm google, they would own AIM and MSN... they would push google and yahoo far back... a lot of negative things could come from this, and they have the money for it too.
 
PlaceofDis said:
why? if they acquired AOL they would become a monster on the internet. they could effectively harm google, they would own AIM and MSN... they would push google and yahoo far back... a lot of negative things could come from this, and they have the money for it too.
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Ya a point i was trying to get off exactly. Yours was much better said though. ;)
 
lordmac said:
Linkness

They have been having secret up till now talk about Microsoft buying AOL or a part of it. This could have a huge effect in the internet company business world. I know many of you hate AOL for one reason or other but they are still a huge player in the business, they make by far massively more money then yahoo, msn(the internet part) , or google. They are also make the most many for google then any other relationship google has. Also AOL's instant messaging services (ICQ, AIM) have by far the most users so if msn bought them it really puts the yahoo and google talk far behind. This could also provoke a bidding war between Google and MSN as Google is also very much poised to buy AOL though as far as the public knows they aren't in talks. Then general mood amongst aol employee's is that they want to get away from time warner as soon as they can although most would prefer to be bought by google. I personally would much rather google buys aol then msn. If msn obtains AOL it gives them a huge reach in the internet world, which as a mac fanboy I don't like the idea of. Plus I can't stand that retarded butterfly. :p


Your Thoughts.....
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There was nothing in that article about buying AOL. Way to post misleading headlines.
 
plasticparadox said:
There was nothing in that article about buying AOL. Way to post misleading headlines.
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Sorry, I actually didn't find out from an article I mearly found one from a reputable source to back my self up a bit. But believe me it could turn into a buy. I like to maintain my anonymity on the web, so let just say a close personal friend is an employee at AOL. They don't like being owned by time-warner. Microsoft im sure would be all to happy to buy AOL considering there competing services loses them money like crazy. Just use google news and search for AOL there is tons on this. Plus in this day and age a merge is basically is a buy out for all intensive purposes. I mean technically AOL "merged" with time warner but its no secret time warner is in complete control. Only one original board member from aol is still there.

Here is some more sources:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-050915aolsale,1,2358033.story?coll=chi-business-hed

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&l...=ISO-8859-1&q=aol,+microsoft&btnG=Search+News

However u look at it, its still a definitely a possibility.
 
lordmac said:
Sorry, I actually didn't find out from an article I mearly found one from a reputable source to back my self up a bit. But believe me it could turn into a buy. I like to maintain my anonymity on the web, so let just say a close personal friend is an employee at AOL. They don't like being owned by time-warner. Microsoft im sure would be all to happy to buy AOL considering there competing services loses them money like crazy. Just use google news and search for AOL there is tons on this. Plus in this day and age a merge is basically is a buy out for all intensive purposes. I mean technically AOL "merged" with time warner but its no secret time warner is in complete control. Only one original board member from aol is still there.

Here is some more sources:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-050915aolsale,1,2358033.story?coll=chi-business-hed

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&l...=ISO-8859-1&q=aol,+microsoft&btnG=Search+News

However u look at it, its still a definitely a possibility.
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It's a definite possiblity. But don't you think that Microsoft buying out or merging with their biggest Internet provider competitor and as well the IM services of AOL could be looked at as an anti-trust issue?

However, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt as I don't know anyone working at either AOL or Microsoft.
 
stoid said:
If there were ever two companies that deserved each other, it would be MS and AOL. Both companies peddle substandard crap to a public that they intentionally keep ignorant.
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My thoughts exactly.
 
stoid said:
If there were ever two companies that deserved each other, it would be MS and AOL. Both companies peddle substandard crap to a public that they intentionally keep ignorant.
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Come to think of it, I've never seen them in the same room together
Hmmmmmmmmm

Woof, Woof – Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
lordmac said:
Sorry, I actually didn't find out from an article I mearly found one from a reputable source to back my self up a bit. But believe me it could turn into a buy. I like to maintain my anonymity on the web, so let just say a close personal friend is an employee at AOL. They don't like being owned by time-warner. Microsoft im sure would be all to happy to buy AOL considering there competing services loses them money like crazy. Just use google news and search for AOL there is tons on this. Plus in this day and age a merge is basically is a buy out for all intensive purposes. I mean technically AOL "merged" with time warner but its no secret time warner is in complete control. Only one original board member from aol is still there.
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First of all, is your friend a call center representative? If your friend is the president of the AOL division, then we can talk.

Second, just because some low-level "employees" are unhappy doesn't mean they will get bought out.

Third, AOL bought Time Warner..not the other way around.

I agree that AOL will probably be spun off or sold within the next few years, but this MS rumor has been around for years.
 
I would prefer to see Google with AOL. Microsoft is far too big as it is now. :eek:
 
FearFactor47 said:
Does AOL not own TimeWarner? If MS buys AOL, would it not also own TimeWarner Pictures?
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Not just TimeWarner Pictures, but all of TimeWarner. But I think if AOL pairs with anyone it would be split off from TimeWarner which of course would be ironic, since it was AOL that bought out TimeWarner in the first place. Not a marriage made in heaven. So much for "synergy!"

OTOH, Microsoft and AOL deserve each other. They both have approximately the same attitude towards their customers. I just wonder whether we could call the joined company "Dumb and Dumber, Inc."
 
I thought Time Warner's board is running AOLTime Warner. That is why Steve Case was driven out. As well as Ted Turner, Time Warner has wanted to drop AOL for years because its causing the company to lose money.
 
The problem is that AOL does very little Mac development as it is and if Microsoft buys out AOL I can see that development get worse or maybe even stop altogether.
 
MacNut said:
I thought Time Warner's board is running AOLTime Warner. That is why Steve Case was driven out. As well as Ted Turner, Time Warner has wanted to drop AOL for years because its causing the company to lose money.
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IIRC, it is now, yes. Case was made top dog after the merger, but he was tossed after only a few years on the job which basically flipped the company from being AOL-TimeWarner to TimeWarner-AOL, as far as who is calling the shots is concerned.

AOL really is a huge boat anchor now. That, and the similar corporate cultures, make AOL and Microsoft the perfect fit! Have fun Bill! You really want to buy this company!
 
PlaceofDis said:
why? if they acquired AOL they would become a monster on the internet. they could effectively harm google, they would own AIM and MSN... they would push google and yahoo far back... a lot of negative things could come from this, and they have the money for it too.
Click to expand...

ya i really hope this doesnt happen
 
mac-er said:
First of all, is your friend a call center representative? If your friend is the president of the AOL division, then we can talk.

Second, just because some low-level "employees" are unhappy doesn't mean they will get bought out.

Third, AOL bought Time Warner..not the other way around.

I agree that AOL will probably be spun off or sold within the next few years, but this MS rumor has been around for years.
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No :p not a call center representative, I thought every knew by now all those guys are in india. My sig clearly states I live in N. VA. But im not here to start a stupid argument who cares all my point is this could cause some big effects in the internet world. And ya technically AOL bought timewarner, but the bought it with AOL stock basically giving timewarner control. And with that control time-warner has indeed muscled out almost all of the top AOL guys and replaced them with there own guys. And they are not as much of a anchor in the business as people think. $20 a month times 20 million people is a lot mula not to mention advertising. Thats a lot of cash fast. AOL is still much more successful then yahoo and msn in their business space. Plus you have to give them some break they have gotten a lot better in the last year or 2. Hey they have done more for apple then yahoo has. Anyone notice how u can use your aol account for your itunes accounts when you go to buy music. Plus they are moving all of there content to html and putting it on to aol.com which in a way provides better mac compatibility.
 
lordmac said:
Plus they are moving all of there content to html and putting it on to aol.com which in a way provides better mac compatibility.
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That has actually made it worse for Mac users since none of the Mac browsers are compatible through AOL for html.
 
MacNut said:
That has actually made it worse for Mac users since none of the Mac browsers are compatible through AOL for html.
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Im no html expert but how could a mac not be compatible with html from aol its just html like any other html. Aol.com works fine for me on my mac. Not the most pleasant site imo but it works.
 
lordmac said:
Im no html expert but how could a mac not be compatible with html from aol its just html like any other html. Aol.com works fine for me on my mac. Not the most pleasant site imo but it works.
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AOL's browsers for the Mac software are so outdated that they cant handle the updated functions of AOL. The only work around is to use firefox.
 
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