Yahoo, AOL Doing Due Diligence For Tie-Up: Reports
This story was written by Robert Andrews.
As the portal business Rubiks cube goes through another turn, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and AOL (NYSE: TWX) are now doing due diligence on each other's finances in what could be a prelude to a much-mooted tie-up between the pair, Reuters claims. The wire did not disclose its "person familiar with the talks", who said the process is "meaningful" but not imminent: the two are "looking at each other's books to figure out how much money they could make together and where costs can be saved". AllThingsD also reported the due diligence angle yesterday.
Reuters says the talks center on "how to integrate AOL's content and advertising business into Yahoo" - which could essentially Yahoo swallow both AOL's portals and editorial efforts and its Platform-A ad behemoth. That could add a significant new dimension to the DoJ's still-ongoing scrutiny of Yahoo's Google (NSDQ: GOOG) ad deal - how ready will the department be to green-light an amalgam of Yahoo, Google and Platform-A advertising assets? Alternatively, a Yahoo/Platform-A tie-up may afford a fall-back option, should the Google avenue be blocked.
By Robert Andrews