Many Suitors, and Many Pitfalls, as AOL Seeks a Partner - New York Times

Many Suitors, and Many Pitfalls, as AOL Seeks a Partner - New York Times: "Microsoft has emerged as the front-runner in the talks surrounding the potential sale of a stake in America Online, two people involved in the negotiations said. But despite a flurry of interest in AOL from Microsoft, Google and others, finding a deal has been harder than Time Warner may have hoped.
Behind the scenes, a number of questions remain that could hold up or even derail a potential transaction.
...
AOL, despite its large but declining dial-up Internet access business, has become suddenly coveted because of the expanding market for online advertising and the fact that both its AOL service for subscribers only and its revamped AOL.com free Web portal attract millions of consumers each day."

Sort of like Netscape before it.