Speculation about a pending deal between AOL and Microsoft was put to rest by the announcement that AOL has chosen to continue its relationship with Google. Under the new enhanced agreement, Google will pay out $1 billion for a five percent stake in AOL, making it the only shareholder of AOL other than Time Warner. The two companies are planning to collaborate on their respective video projects (i.e., AOL’s premium video service and the Google Video product). And AOL’s content will now be much more accessible via Google’s web crawlers, allowing users and content to be matched more easily. Maybe next time, Microsoft.
