Russell Beattie Notebook - AOL Going

When I wrote about AOL Rising a few weeks ago, it didnt dawn on me that what they were really doing is prepping themselves up for a sale. Reports are today that talks are under way with MSN, Google and who knows what the guys two floors down from me at Yahoo! are doing as well.
Google, it seems, would be the most obvious suitor to me. They need everything that AOL already has in order to continue to compete in the online media space. Yeah, they have their Search cash-cow at the moment, but thats an undefensible lead. The switching costs for someone to move from Google to Yahoo! Search are nil - I should know, Ive done it, I rarely use Google now and there was no real penalty involved in switching. Google is essentially an advertising company and needs to keep expanding its online media business, or get caught by competitors in the Search space and not have a backup. Snagging AOL would bring along some great assets that Google really needs, including the Netscape name (and campus down the street from Google in Mt. View), AIM, AOL Mail, AOL Mobile, multimedia assets, tons of content and tons of community services as well. Hell, what else is Google going to do with $4b in cash lying around? "