30 October 2008 11:03 GMT / By Katie Scott
They're not promising anything but Yahoo and AOL may be one step closer to a merger.The two companies have announced that they have started to do due diligence on a possible deal - to figure out what a merger could mean in terms of both money making and money savings.
A source told Reuters that the two companies have engaged in "meaningful" due diligence about a possible combination for the past couple of weeks.
Rumours of a merger between the two businesses have been circulating for most of this year, including during the period Yahoo was fighting off a takeover bid by Microsoft.
Both Time Warner, who owns AOL, and Yahoo have both been hit by the economic downturn. Time Warner shares are down about 45% from last year, while Yahoo shares have fallen about 63%.
By merging AOL's content and advertising busines into Yahoo, the two companies may be better set to weather the storm.
Neither AOL or Yahoo are commenting on the reports. Biz, Yahoo, AOL, Google, Microsoft, Time Warner
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