Time Warner is in "advanced discussions" to sell off a stake in America Online to Microsoft, combining it with Microsoft's Web portal, MSN, according to a report in Thursday's
New York Post. If
such a deal goes through, some industry watchers see a potential shakeout of the online advertising world--particularly in the search space. Currently, market leader Google powers AOL's search engine.
Google's latest quarterly SEC filing put the amount of money generated by the search giant's partnership with AOL at between 11 and 12 percent of revenues. In its stock filing, Google stated that the
loss of partners like AOL could "adversely affect our business." -- Shankar Gupta
