AOL Chief Director Tim Armstrong thought corporation is commencement discussion on a novel search contract, except a tentative report at Business Insider suggests that corporation might finish up selling itself complete to Microsoft.

Though I have no information that's where things are headed, it surely seems rational. Microsoft is looking to increase search share, and AOL is one of the main chunk available.

For now, some of its exhibit ad and Web attendance appear as if they might mesh with Redmond's, whereas at the similar time maybe generate sufficient job loss for some cost savings.

Plus, Microsoft's pockets are profound sufficient to pay for such a contract, must it decide that it needs to. The corporation at one time was eager to pay north of $30 a share for Yahoo, although that corporation brought with it far more search share than would be obtain with AOL.

Google is clearly the other competitor, while its most likely more involved in a regeneration of a search deal than in AOL's countless other Internet assets, counting mail, immediate messaging networks, and a variety of content sites.