One wonders if Yahoo! will get the jump on Google in this arena…

Speaking of Google and Yahoo!, check out this ominous statement from Carl Icahn re: the future of TW/AOL:

“However, I am deeply concerned
that the Time Warner Board may be on the verge of making a disastrous decision
concerning an agreement with Google if this agreement would make it more
difficult in any way or effectively preclude a merger or other type of
transaction with companies such as IAC/InterActive, eBay, Yahoo!, or Microsoft
etc. etc… I believe there are and will be major opportunities to enhance
Time Warner’s value in future combinations. However these transactions might
not be achievable if Time Warner enters into long-term arrangements that
preclude future flexibility such as an agreement regarding search
functionality. I also question whether Google is the best partner for
unlocking the value of the AOL asset. Indeed, a recent Goldman Sachs report
concludes, “In contrast to the conventional perspective, we believe that eBay,
followed by InterActive Corp, would provide greater incremental benefits to
AOL’s option value with fewer conflicts of interest than Yahoo! while MSN and
Google would provide the least incremental benefits.”

emphasis mine…