In the ongoing soap opera that has been the whole Microhoo acquisition proposition, a new possible exit strategy from the inevitability of Microsoft gobbling them up via a proxy battle. The Wall Street Journal is reporting, by way of anonymous sources, that Yahoo and AOL are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet groups.
This news comes hot on the heels of Yahoo's announcement of a limited test run of Google's advertising platform on Yahoo search data. Both of these moves show exactly how far Yahoo is willing to go to avoid being saddled up with Microsoft, a curious stance.
The partnership would take the form of the online portals of AOL and Yahoo folding into one another, reportedly, and a collaboration between the combined assets of both companies. In terms of the financial deal at stake, the Wall Street Journal anonymous source says that the AOL brand would be folded in under the Yahoo brand in return for 20% ownership of the combined entity. The deal would not include the AOL dial-up and Internet access business, but would be followed by a stock buyback, a detail that is sure to drive up the price of both stock's entity if the merger talks pan out. The partnership would value AOL at around $10 billion.