AOL knows how to play this game

As talk persists of a possible deal involving , it looks as though a sale may have been what Time Warner has had in mind for some time. A brief recap of recent events: In August, after much-publicized criticism from investor extraordinaire Carl Icahn, detractors . In September, in what was viewed as the most bullish assessment in years, Time Warner chief Richard Parsons calls AOL "" and says he's even considering buying back more stock. (Read: a valuable property.)

Then in October, reports surfaced of talks between AOL and rival MSN, then Google and Comcast and finally Yahoo. But perhaps the most telling indication of an anticipated sale came today, when AOL announced 700 layoffs--on top of 750 last December and another 500 the year before.

Layoffs are often a quick and dirty way of cutting costs and, therefore, making a potential acquisition more attractive. So if Time Warner was truly interested in , as one might have surmised from the optimism stated by Parsons last month, it sure has a funny way of showing it.

Blog community response:

"How did AOL suddenly become a cultural must-have? AOL--You've Got Mail from Google, Yahoo, Comcast and Microsoft! This is the prom date with suitors you only dream of. The lesson learned when Fox acquired MySpace.com this past summer, for half a billion dollars, is very simple: entertainment content quality is not the issue, it's how many users the website has, the daily numbers of visits and the advertising dollars brought in."
--Entertainment Culture

"The one question that crossed my mind is--how is AOL staging the discussions without having each camp run into each other in an elevator? Plus I imagine that AOL has had to 'divide and conquer' and set up multiple deal teams negotiating in parallel."
--Business & Technology Reinvention

"All of sudden there is a huge interest in AOL. Yes I said it AOL. The same company that has lost 6 million users or roughly 23% of the customers since the merger with Time Warner and there appears to be no end in sight. The big tech companies see these remaining customers as people who are willing to pay a premuim for easy of use and an all in one portal. Who are these people that still have AOL anyhow? What a waist of money."
--Technology, Gaming, and Programming