Google finalises deal for AOL stake
Time Warner spokeswoman Kathy McKiernan confirmed that the deal had been signed, and the transaction was also cited in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The deal, which will see Google pay one billion dollars in cash for the stake, was first unveiled on December 22. The agreement, which shuts out software giant Microsoft from a possible AOL tie-up, will create a global online advertising partnership and make more of AOL’s content available to Google users.
AOL, whose 2000 merger with Time Warner was much acclaimed at the time but has now gone emphatically sour, has been struggling as consumers shift to high-speed Internet providers.
Google already has a sponsored-ad relationship with AOL but is keen to become a one-stop-shop on the Internet that does far more than just run searches of websites.
Industry speculation includes talk that Google intends to launch its own productivity suite to strike at Microsoft Office software.
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