Confirmed: Google Buys 5% of AOL

Dec 21 2005, 1:16am EST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Google blocked Microsoft out of AOL by taking a 5% stake in the company for $1 billion.

The deal involves also a $300 million worth of free Google advertising for AOL.
The bigger topic though is how far AOL got Google in displaying graphical banners on their sites. Google already offered Webmasters the option to display graphical ads through the traditionally text based Adsense since a while.
Banners on Google search results would disappoint tons of loyal Google users. I do not think they go that far. We will see. It could mean tons of money for Google.
Update: Google will not have graphical banners on their own search result pages. More details on the Google AOL deal in this Reuters story.
BusinessWeek has just published a good article about the deal arguing that Google gains the most out of this arrangement.

See also the official Google press-release.

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Luigi Lugmayr
Luigi is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at ml@i4u.com. Luigi posts regularly on LuigiMe.com about his experience running I4U.