Google Acquires 5% of AOL 404
Heembo writes "CNN is reporting that Google just acquired a 5% stake in AOL for $1 Billion, shutting Microsoft out of the deal." Under this new agreement, among many other things, Google Talk will now interface with AOL's instant messenger according to the announcement on Google's site. From the announcement: "Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said: 'AOL is one of Google's longest-standing partners, and we are thrilled to strengthen and expand our relationship. Today's agreement leverages technologies from both companies to connect Google users worldwide to a wealth of new content.'"
I recall reading this not too long ago... (Score:3, Informative)
Gimme a 'D'! (Score:0, Informative)
Gimme a 'P'!
Gimme a 'E'!
What does it spell? DUPE! [slashdot.org]
Re:It's all in the name... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Informative)
http://news.com.com/Google%2C+Time+Warner+strike+
AOL gets --
* $1B investment. Not gift, but investment.
* $300M credit for purchase of keyword ads.
* Ability to sell ads across Google's network including third-party sites (!).
* Assistance in opening up the 'walled garden' content to Google's crawler.
* Collaboration on video search.
Google --
* Minority shareholder rights.
* Possibly, more ads sold by AOL's marketing machine.
* Possibly, higher CTR if AOL can do better ad sales -- through knowing more about its users, say (inferred).
* Greater availability of the old 'walled garden' content.
* Collaboration in online video search, which probably includes working with AOL's 'SingingFish' service, and perhaps access to content?
* Interoperability to an IM network with a huge base -- slightly larger than MSN + Yahoo!, last I checked.
There's also a defensive factor; a deal with MSN might have required shifting from Google to MSN, and that would mean some 25-30M search queries per day and ~10% of Google's advertising revenue.
As to how Google might lose, well, if AOL were to collapse, the $1B investment might look like a bad idea; or if the changes drove away too many paying users (through ad clicks, not subscribers). Likewise, AOL might be considered to have lost if Microsoft would have been a better partner, or if people flee AIM to Google Talk, or so forth. But it's an interesting deal from both perspectives, I'd say.
Re:Something doesn't smell right about this (Score:1, Informative)
Re:G to the N to the A to the A (Score:1, Informative)
I bow to your massive trolling skills
Re:Something doesn't smell right about this (Score:3, Informative)
AOL's instant messenger can be very valuable for Google. In the US, at least, it's the de facto standard for many general public social groups because of network effects. Google Talk is not going to succeed until they join it with some major network. (iChat performed well because Apple licensed AOL's protocols and access to the server instead of saying, "oo, we have Mac.com, let's invent our own messenger!".)
The next thing they have (or had) is Netscape. There have been rumors of a Google Browser for some time now, and Google's been working pretty closely with Firefox (they even supply a custom home page for that browser only). It's very possible that Google could un-spin-off the Mozilla Foundation and take it under Google, Inc.'s ownership.
What else does AOL have? AOL/AIM/Netscape webmail (of course Gmail is better but perhaps there's some useful feature in those); Netscape's web page composer (Google owns Blogger, and might launch a web hosting service); voice and video chat; Winamp; ICQ; Mapquest; Popular Science; Engadget....
In other words, AOL is a very large conglomerate. It's okay to say that America Online is a "bad guy" if you recognize that AOL Time Warner consists of a lot more.
Re:Something doesn't smell right about this (Score:2, Informative)
The standard definition is 'evil = big'. You get too successful people will hate you.
The big appeal of Nintendo and Apple is that they are underdogs. The more they get kicked around the better. Truth is both are some of the most arrogant companies out there (iTMS locking out 3rd party mp3 players for example). Thank God neither is in a market leadership position (desktops/consoles).
Re:Meanwhile (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So I guess Google owns 10% now? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hello Google iChat (Score:3, Informative)
I've had several chats with my friend this way, with me using iChat and him using Google Talk.
Google's announcement (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/twaol_expand
Would've been nice to have that linked in the summary, or at least in the CNN article. Or maybe it's just too late and I failed to see it.... O_o
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Informative)
I have web customers with compuserve email addresses where mail was getting bounced from their website form (they didn't want another email address from their domain to worry about) as well as a spouse with friends that have AOL addresses. Once I got the SPF record, it flowed.
Stop worrying (Score:3, Informative)