From here (paid as usual):
Time Warner Inc.’s AOL and Google Inc. have entered exclusive negotiations over a deal that would have the search giant pay $1 billion for a 5% stake in AOL, deepening their advertising partnership, according to a person close to the situation.
The talks shut out Microsoft Corp., which has been wooing AOL since January.
As part of the deal, AOL would be able to sell advertising among the search results provided by Google on AOL Web properties. AOL’s sales staff would also sell display ads across Google’s network of Web publishers.
Fascinating: AOL selling display inventory across Google’s network – in other words, AdSense. Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm………Now does Google have the right to let AOL sell my pages, if I am an AdSense publisher? Hmmmm. I guess I’d be OK with that if AOL reps know who I am, and what ads are endemic, and why my site works, and all that. But….will they? Or is this a land grab of sorts? Is this Google buying its way into having a real sales force?
Interesting.