Yahoo! Joins AOL Chase

Comcast too could be interested in AOL because the AOL brand "could help upsell broadband to cable customers" and give it "access to high growth revenue stream," said another analyst. In turn, a Comcast relationship could help mitigate the rapid dial-up subscriber decline and move AOL users to broadband more efficiently.

"Comcast seems appealing to me as a partner to help migrate dial-up subs," one media analyst says of the sudden interest in AOL as a partner. "Nobody seems to talk about that -- instead they talk about the portal." The analyst notes that while AOL and Comcast both have family-friendly brands that could fit together well, he wonders about Google's media strategy. "Google seems more interested in making a serious media play," he says.

In an interesting twist, Microsoft and Yahoo! this week announced that they would link their also-ran instant messaging services.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Google and Comcast are in "serious discussions" about buying a minority stake in America Online. That report followed September's New York Post report of the Microsoft-AOL talks.

On Friday, Time Warner shares dropped 3 cents to $17.56, Yahoo! fell 36 cents to $33.01, Google slipped $2.95 to $294.49 and Comcast rose 23 cents to $27.43.