About a year after paying $4.4 billion for AOL, Verizon Communications (VZ) - Get Report is touting its integration of the Internet company. But as the telco now looks at Yahoo! (YHOO) , company followers wonder whether Verizon would be able to pull off the same magic with Marissa Mayer's Internet house.

New York-based Verizon reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday, posting earnings per share of $1.06, up from $1.02 per share in the corresponding period the prior year. Revenue came in at $32.17 billion, slightly up from from $31.98 billion the year prior.

Shares of Verizon dropped 4% Thursday to $49.64 mid-day, giving the company a $201.2 billion market capitalization. While earnings per share were in line with the Street's expectations, revenue fell short.

In its earnings call with investors Thursday morning, the telecom touched on topics ranging from the reorganization of its wireless business and implications of the Federal Communications Commission's rules on data security to its M&A strategy.

"AOL had its best first quarter revenues in the last five years driven by growth in the platform layer. If we exclude AOL, which was not part of Verizon a year ago, our top line revenue declined by 1.5% for the quarter," said CFO Fran Shammo during the call.

The revenue growth shows that Verizon's tuck-in investments within its Internet content platforms are critical despite their relatively small size, Shammo said.

Since joining Verizon last May, AOL has acquired advertising technology provider Millennial Media for $248 million along with video content producer Volicon and most recently video maker Ryot for undisclosed amounts.

The deals are designed to attract a certain population demographic--millennials--that previously lacked a strong connection to the telco giant, Shammo added, noting that Verizon will start integrating its mobile video Go90 offerings across AOL platforms this year.

Shammo declined to talk about Yahoo! during the call, but stressed that Verizon has made it its priority to get its credit rating from Moody's Investors Service back to A- from BBB currently.

Meanwhile, the CFO has publicly acknowledged at past investor conferences that Yahoo! is an asset that Verizon could be interested in. And the telco is widely favored to win any auction. Yahoo! is currently exploring a sale with JPMorgan, PJT Partners and Cravath, Swaine & Moore following pressure from hedge fund Starboard Value.

"They want to put these AOL, Yahoo! and Go9 platforms together," said Argus Research analyst Joseph Bonner, noting that there could be synergy in wireless video offerings aimed toward younger consumers. But Bonner pointed out that Shammo may be hinting that Verizon won't pay up for Yahoo! by highlighting its goal of reattaining an A- credit rating.

Although there may seem to be a good strategic fit between AOL and Yahoo!, the two are different beasts, said B. Riley analyst Sameet Sinha.

"The growth trajectories are drastically different," he said, adding that AOL has always been a growing business while Yahoo! has been steadily declining.

Sinha acknowledged that Verizon may covet the sizable increase in traffic that Yahoo! could bring to AOL, thanks to an increase in content. That point was echoed by Macquarie Capital analyst Amy Yong, who noted that the combination would provide the largest existing ad platform on the Web.

But Sinha noted that integrating their technology platforms could be challenging.

The other issue is whether Yahoo would be willing to sell Verizon its core business without its valuable but controversial stake in Alibaba, since Verizon is understood not to be interested in the latter.

"It's a complex situation," Yong said. And Verizon's balance sheet goals don't simplify matters.

A Verizon spokesman declined to comment, while one for Yahoo! couldn't be reached Thursday.