AOL Bidding: Give Me Liberty

This column was originally published on RealMoney on Nov. 15 at 3:35 p.m. EST. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers.

Gaming the winners and losers of a potential deal for AOL is a two-step process. You need to first understand what is being fought for, and second, who is fighting for it.

Here then are the "crown jewels" of AOL that people are willing to pay upward of $15 billion for in aggregate.

Narrowband subscribers: This portion of AOL probably is worth a small amount of the eventual sale price, because it's a severely declining business despite the tremendous cash flows generated. Broadband subscribers are less attractive, as they are not a very competitive pie, and Time Warner(TWX Quote) has never aggressively pursued this as much as it could have. For instance, why did it take so long for them to do a deal with AOL and Time Warner Cable? ...