AOL gives Google ‘first dibs’ on search deal renewal
- Added:
- Jan 11, 2010
Online media giant AOl has said Google will get "first dibs" at signing a search deal when the two companies' current agreement expires at the end of this year.
AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong made the announcement last week, during a presentation at Citi's annual entertainment, media and telecommunications conference.
Asked how Microsoft Corp.'s aggressive push into the search market could impact the negotiations between AOL and any search engine provider, Armstrong said his company could "maybe get the same economics" from a new deal.
But he noted that any new search deal would have to be financially good for AOL overall, not just its search business. For instance, Armstrong said the newly independent company "may trade search dollars for more display dollars."
Last month AOL officially separated from media giant Time Warner Inc.
Vowing that AOL could go head to head with any company on the Internet, including market leader Yahoo Inc., in online display advertising, Armstrong told investors to look for "signs of life" in his company's domestic display ad business in 2010. He also said he expects healthy traffic in its Web services properties, but he acknowledged this would be hard to see because of upcoming divestitures.
Asked what made him most uncomfortable, Armstrong said AOL has some assets that are "very underleveraged," but he declined to specify which properties.
AOL is trying to rejuvenate itself as an online display advertising leader by investing in various forms of Web content, but the Internet company has gone solo amid one of the worst economic environments in generations, causing a prolonged advertising slump.
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