About three years ago Google took on a 5% stake at AOL for a whopping $1 Billion. Today Google is not so sure that the investment was a good choice.
While they are not saying the value they believe the investment is worth, they are certainly not pleased by the past decision.
“Based on our review, we believe our investment in AOL may be impaired. After consideration of the duration of the impairment, as well as the reasons for any decline in value and the potential recovery period, we do not believe that such impairment is ‘other-than-temporary’.” Google noted in their lengthy 10-Q on June 30, 2008.
AOL apparently has also been looking for potential buyers – Certainly MSN and Yahoo have been in consideration, but one must wonder, that even if they think their $1billon investment may have been a bad idea, would they be willing to buy out AOL to keep it out of Yahoo and Microsoft’s hands? Time will tell.