MediaPost reminds us (reg req’d) that thanks to some early deals via AOL (hey, smart acquisition), Time Warner now owns 8% of Google, making it the third largest outside owner. Strategic? Nope, say TW brass.
TIME WARNER NOW HOLDS AN 8 percent stake in Google, according to information filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. In Time Warner’s fourth quarter 2004 earnings report released this morning, the company said it “does not consider its remaining interest in Google to be a strategic investment,” but the position makes Time Warner the third largest outside investor in Google after two big fund managers.
(note: I know nothing more about this than what I’ve read online today)
According to the articles I read, TW owns 5.1 million shares of Class A stock, representing 8% of the currrent Class A stock available. The 8% number seems to ignore the substantial Class B shares that haven’t been converted to Class A.
According to Yahoo Finance there are 273 million shares outstanding (Class A and B), which would put AOL’s ownership stake at 1.8%, not 8%.
> thanks to some early deals via AOL…
Lucky dogs!
Those early deals were the springboard that Google needed to get prime jockeying position over Overture at the time, because they wrested AOL.com and AOL properties away from Overture who at the time had a domination on syndicating sponsored search results. When Google got the AOL deal, Google AdWords became a must-buy for search engine advertising buys, much like Overture had been.
Overture had been the only game in town really. After AOL fell, Google snagged Earthlink and has had continuous momentum with the distribution of AdWords ever since. So, imho, the AOL deals were a major catalyst for Google getting to where it is now.