Microsoft intensifies talks with AOL
Following numerous failed attempts to take over Yahoo!, Microsoft is currently engaged in intensive talks with internet portal AOL. Citing informed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition that top managers from both companies wanted to meet on Wednesday in Seattle. The talks were to focus on merging the companies' online divisions.
Since the beginning of the year, Yahoo! has rebuffed numerous multibillion-dollar offers from Microsoft. The software concern was hoping to use the takeover to intensify the offensive against its rival Google, which dominates the booming internet search advertisement business. Major Yahoo stockholder and critic Carl Icahn is hoping to vote out the current board of directors at the company's general shareholders' meeting on August 1 and then force the company into a deal with Microsoft.
According to the newspaper's report Microsoft and AOL have had repeated contact in recent months. Yahoo! too has often engaged in talks with the Time Warner subsidiary. Time Warner is looking for a new strategy for its faltering internet business. Microsoft and AOL did not respond to the newspaper's requests for comment on the report.
(trk)
