The Times Online today is reporting that Yahoo! may resume its talks with AOL about a possible merger. This new direction for Yahoo! is simple, yet clever. Yahoo! was reported want to avoid the takeover from Microsoft, a talk with AOL about the merger possibilities would signaling its intention to keep the Yahoo! brand name in the market while retain its core values. However, the merger deal is expected not to be finalized easily as this involved several parties. Google has a 5 per cent stake in AOL and AOL’s back-end search engine was provided by Google.

It is common sense to assume that Yahoo! might want to pursue its media dream by merging its media businesses with AOL. On the other side, Google will take over Yahoo! search or ads division, further solidifying its number one position in the online ads industry.

via [Times Online]