Microsoft May Need To Outbid Google For AOL

from the ah,-the-auction-process dept

You can be sure of one thing: Google understand how bidding works. That's how they make most of their money, watching advertisers try to outbid each other to get better placement. It appears that Google, with the help of Comcast, may be looking to drive up the price that Microsoft would need to pay if it wanted to buy a part of AOL. Google and Comcast are apparently teaming up to make their own bid for a piece of the company. It's clearly in Google's best interest, seeing how about 12% of their revenue currently comes from AOL, and that would likely go away soon after Microsoft took over. Still, Google is probably a bit wary of actually getting involved with the struggling company, so it's probably a case where they figure the least they can do is drive up however much Microsoft needs to pay -- and if Google ends up with a piece of AOL in the process, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Of course, remember that Google's ad bidding process also throws in an element of "relevance." Can they convince AOL that they might be a better partner than Microsoft even at a lower price by being more relevant?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    A-non, 12 Oct 2005 @ 6:03pm

    Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

    I personally hope that Microsfot wins the bid for AOL; I think that AOL needs to re-design their software to incorporate and weave in windows [elements] more; their programs need serious redesigning with less Flash. Personally, I dislike AOL for their program and its "basic user interface". I may reconsider using AOL again if it sychornized windows and the AOL application together. On the other hand though, I think that having Google win would be beneficial as well, seeing as I am a proud Google, Gmail, Gtalk, user. Combining their elements together would be very It would be nice in the sense that Google's elements would be weaved in the AOL program and others such as AIM.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Gerald Gibson, 12 Oct 2005 @ 6:14pm

      Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

      I thought Microsoft already owned a large part of Comcast?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2005 @ 7:39pm

      Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

      Yeah and Microsofts own MSN was real winner, NOT. Gentoo and Mozzila now theres a winner :)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Gerald Gibson, 13 Oct 2005 @ 7:37am

        Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

        >Yeah and Microsofts own MSN was real winner, NOT. Gentoo and Mozzila now theres a winner :)< br>

        You are saying Mozilla and Gent? what? is bigger than Microsoft? In your dreams at night maybe.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      macbeach, 12 Oct 2005 @ 8:05pm

      Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

      I was never a particularly big fan of AOL either, and have never been a paying customer, on the other hand, in terms of "evilness" (or lack thereof) I think AOL has a lot more in common with Google than Microsoft.
      AOL has pumped a lot of money into various "open" software efforts over the years, keeping Netscape, Winamp, Shoutcast among others, funded as a customer, or by acquiring the remains of these efforts when nobody else was interested. I stopped using ICQ when they acquired that, thinking they would ruin it. They didn't, however after jumping from one IM to another over the years I find that AIM suits me just fine and apparently I'm not alone in this. I use the built-in iChat client on my Apple machine, and I use Gaim under Linux, so essentially AOL has been providing me with a free service for a couple of years now and I've never paid them a dime or even viewed an ad to pay for the service indirectly.
      Beyond that, it seems to be an industry secret (I haven't seen it reported ANYWHERE!) that AOL is quietly re-inventing itself mostly through the AIM namespace. Since I've never been an AOL customer, I am only known to them via the free AIM id I signed up for several years ago. At the time it was linked with what was left of the Netscape organization with a fairly useless free e-mail id. These days, you can get a free AIM branded e-mail address that comes with (hold on to your seats):
      2Gig of storage, and IMAP client interface, and AJAX interface with the look of Outlook, complete with drag and drop folder actions. NOBODY else has this, and nobody seems to be talking about it, which shows how dependent our tech press is on formal press releases to actually know what is going on (they don't actually experiment with the tech on their own).
      Oh, did I mention they have a blogging service that already rivals MSN's (OK that's not saying much). You can load up to 98 meg of stuff onto a personal web page (I don't know how they arrived at that particular limit), do photo albums, schedule recurring tasks, generate automated e-mails, although there seems to be no formal calendar yet, and probably a few other things that I haven't discovered. If you have the right cell phone, which I don't, you can apparently use AIM from that too. All of this is free (although I can't test the cell phone bit) and can be used on Linux, OS X, and of course Windows.
      AOL has long been platform agnostic, although they get dragged kicking and screaming into helping Microsoft lock users in to Windows on a regular basis. The recent kiss-and-make-up between Microsoft and Real I think underscores how desperate Microsoft is getting for friends. The existence of Google coupled with Microsoft's long reputation of screwing over anything that moves into its field of vision, I think has finally started working seriously against the big company and in favor of all the screwees. Google may have squashed the online Office-killer rumors for now, but gradually more and more of what we do with computers is online and offers no particular advantage, and in some cases a major disadvantage, to the Windows user. The technology set-back that clueless user's infatuation with Windows has caused for the past 10 years is finally coming to and end and we may see that some old dinosaurs like AOL and IBM (just to name two) have a lot more upside potential than anyone ever thought (particularly the "tech analysts").

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Jasen, 13 Oct 2005 @ 9:36am

        Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

        Microsoft owns Sun and continues to develop StarOffice.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          gwar, 16 Oct 2005 @ 10:19am

          Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

          Microsoft does not own Sun dumba$$

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2005 @ 1:43pm

          Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

          Staroffice and MS? lol if MS had thier way sun wouldnt be releaseing staroffice, or contributing to openoffice. Why would MS want the FREE competition??

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Justin, 13 Oct 2005 @ 11:29am

      Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

      I think AOL should be shut down and wiped off the face of this earth.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2005 @ 1:41pm

      Re: Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

      Re: first comment

      Your an idiot!

      I would personally rather google take over AOL, though it is unlikely. If google took over, it would be likely that more of aol's software would become open source (Winamp, etc), and for the whole "weaving" aol into windows, its possible to have aol interact witht eh OS more than it already does without M$ owning it!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    A-non, 12 Oct 2005 @ 6:03pm

    Microsoft vs. Google for AOL

    I personally hope that Microsfot wins the bid for AOL; I think that AOL needs to re-design their software to incorporate and weave in windows [elements] more; their programs need serious redesigning with less Flash. Personally, I dislike AOL for their program and its "basic user interface". I may reconsider using AOL again if it sychornized windows and the AOL application together.

    On the other hand though, I think that having Google win would be beneficial as well, seeing as I am a proud Google, Gmail, Gtalk, user. Combining their elements together would be very It would be nice in the sense that Google's elements would be weaved in the AOL program and others such as AIM.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Gerald Gibson, 12 Oct 2005 @ 6:16pm

    Microsoft / Google / AOL / Comcast

    I thought Microsoft already owned a large portion of Comcast?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      WOW, 12 Oct 2005 @ 6:47pm

      impatient people rule!

      How about we post every comment twice because it didn't IMMEDIATELY show up?

      See all the other comments on this site? Yeah, that means the posting works FINE. Just because it doesn't show up right away, doesn't mean it isn't going to eventually.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2005 @ 7:08pm

        Re: impatient people rule!

        r u anul?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Willis Nillis, 13 Oct 2005 @ 4:39am

        Re: Impatient People Need to Get a REAL JOB??


        What These Folks Don't REALIZE is their Statements need to go to the servers and get ANNALIZED and then Finally Sent Back to the Place Where they Belong___which is Here So Everyone Can Read Them. With This All Said and DONE____Take a DEEP BREATH AND CHECK SOME MORE EMAILS___While Your Statements are Making Their Way Back to the Site____OK ! !! Be Patient__You Will Live LONGER____PEACE

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Lee, 13 Oct 2005 @ 6:56am

          Re: Impatient People Need to Get a REAL JOB??

          ANNALIZED? How about using a dictionary or spell checker? Oh, and there is a little key you need to learn about. It's the period, "." We use it to end sentences, not strings of _____.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Gerald Gibson, 13 Oct 2005 @ 7:35am

        Re: impatient people rule!

        How about you get off your rag and stop being a little bitch?? Hmmm?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Me, 13 Oct 2005 @ 7:45am

        Re: impatient people rule!

        A$$hole

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    the kid, 12 Oct 2005 @ 10:48pm

    M$ is asking too much....

    Man. Microsoft already has MSN. They don't need AOL again. I really dislike AOL. i mean I don't hate them or anything, its just their banners and and advertisement. I think Google should get AOL. Combined, O MAN! it's gonna be end of M$ and MSN...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Adolf, 12 Oct 2005 @ 11:07pm

      Re: M$ is asking too much....

      Idiots - "end of M$" .... thats silly - lets all have 10 different OS so that we can buy games and software for all platforms...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Andy, 13 Oct 2005 @ 1:23am

        Re: M$ is asking too much....

        Personally I hope google doesn't go down that road, its usless road to a dead end.
        They would use there time alot more wisely with improving services like gtalk.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Linux_tech, 13 Oct 2005 @ 6:36am

        Re: M$ is asking too much....

        Or developers will start using OPEN formats instead of Proprietary JUNK, like DirectX and Windows API.

        Open GL, QT, GTK (just to name a few) write your code for those API's and it's just a matter of recompiling per platform.

        If you're all about vendor lock in, and proprietary software, by all means continue supporting Microsoft.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Gerald Gibson, 13 Oct 2005 @ 7:44am

          Re: M$ is asking too much....

          >Or developers will start using OPEN formats instead of Proprietary JUNK, like DirectX and Windows API.< br>
          >Open GL, QT, GTK (just to name a few) write your code for those API's and it's just a matter of recompiling per platform.

          >If you're all about vendor lock in, and proprietary software, by all means continue supporting Microsoft.

          I will continue supporting Microsoft because that is what the Pros do. Trying to be the coolest person on the block using NEW and IMMATURE technologies that dont even TRY to integrate everything together like Microsoft does would make me look unprofessional. Every client of mine has made the choice to go Microsoft because I recommended it and it has always provided all the benefits I said it would because the Windows platform IS a defacto standard that can be depended on... All you nut jobs saying untrue crap like "because I am too dense to setup Windows correctly even though it is EXTREMELY easy, Windows crashes all the time." Sounds as genuine as the religious people trying to say the Intelligent Design is science...heh I just laugh at you people everyday. Try using this wonderful sight called GOOGLE and lookup facts about Microsoft before giving your uninformed opinions... Opinions are like assholes ... everyone has one and they all stink.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Linux_tech, 13 Oct 2005 @ 12:00pm

            Re: M$ is asking too much....

            >NEW and IMMATURE< br>Have you used qt? It's now been in development since 1991. the windows "NT" line (2K XP) has only been around since 94 (possibly 93).
            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_toolkit
            Hell if you want to, you can purchase a license to protect you're precious IP.
            I use Microsoft crap daily, I'm an assistant IT at our company, and no matter how correctly you configure a Microsoft computer you'll have random bugs on some machines. Does this make Linux better? of course not, it has wierd issues in various distros as well. The thing is once you learn Linux you can fix most of the hard bugs EASIER than digging through the pain in the ass that the registry is.
            while you're at it, why don't you not insult the person you're debating with, it might possibly make you look more intelligent.
            > Opinions are like assholes ... everyone has one and they all stink.
            It's a funny thing about opinions. They're fine until it goes up against you're dogma. And using a windows API is dogma. Using proprietary junk instead of PROVEN open formats *COUGH* HTML (Until Microsoft F***ED it up). Wouldn't you rather have all of you're documents stored in an OPEN format, that doesn't lock you in to a particular vendor?
            Apple is just as guilty as Microsoft when it comes to this locking customers into the iPod with the format of songs you get on iTunes.
            >Try using this wonderful sight called GOOGLE
            Speaking of the wonderful "site" (sight is related to vision not the web), you do know they run they're servers on Linux right? You do know they are Microsoft's #1 competition right now?
            >Windows correctly even though it is EXTREMELY easy
            Really, so windows has NEVER crashed on you, NEVER had a program or application lock up on you?
            I don't believe it. While 2K and up have better memory protection from app crashes, they're are still ocassions a crappy app can bring down you're whole system. and usually that crappy app is made by microsoft.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2005 @ 1:52pm

            Re: M$ is asking too much....

            your clients must not be in the tech industry LOL...btw all the big sites like google, amazon, hp, ebay, dell, IBM, etc are ran on linux NOT windows

            Sure, for the casual user windows is easier, but for the professional user/corperation linux is the way to go. Windows costs too much to license and has too many security holes.

            Now, I ask you to go on "this wonderful sight(site?) called GOOGLE" and search for "Microsoft IIS Security vulnerabilities"

            link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    the kidd, 13 Oct 2005 @ 7:14am

    wow

    computers are going out of date what are you all talking about.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Pete, 13 Oct 2005 @ 8:13am

    Google for the Win!!

    I personaly hope Google, wins the bid on AOL. Microsoft is just trying to buy in to not get sued again when they get caught stealling. There is nothing wrong with slapping the hand that steals.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    czarhia gibson, 12 Nov 2005 @ 6:31pm

    you are almost famous

    I think you will get famous with your work and yor teckaxing you know relaxing and using tecnalegy.

    Thank you

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.