Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Google, Comcast Potential AOL Suiters

Since major acquisitions in a industry tend to feed off each other, it is possible that an AOL purchase might come on the heels of Microsoft's potential purchase of Yahoo.

It would make sense for Google to buy AOL if the company were scared into acting defensively, but I don't see that happening. Google is confident in its position, and I don't see MicroHoo changing that. Google would only do so if it thought it could gain strategic advantage by leveraging AOL's audience. Not likely.

However, if Comcast started to show genuine interest, Google's position could change. The cable/Internet intersection is far from complete, and as I've been saying, Comcast would be more successful than Time-Warner was in bringing web content to its cable audience.

AOL has content assets in addition to its audience and online advertising platform, and those are all pieces that Comcast needs more than Google does. So I'm betting that if AOL goes to anyone, it will be the cable company, not Google.

Posted By John Gartner at 10:04 AM
Permanent Link: Google, Comcast Potential AOL Suiters | Comments (0)

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