Time Warner Looking To Deal AOL: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer July 16, 2008

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Watch Shelly’s commentary on TIME WARNER (NYSE: TWX) trying to deal AOL and how it will affect the future of the search ads business.

In Washington D.C., GOOGLE (NASD: GOOG) and MICROSOFT (NASD: MSFT) took their YAHOO (NASD: YHOO) battle to Congress. The hearings were called to evaluate the search ads deal between Google and Yahoo, which Microsoft know says will make up 90% of the search ads business. Of course, Google struck back by accusing Microsoft of trying to sabotage the search ads deal for their own gain, as they continue to pursue a deal for Yahoo’s search business.

South Korea’s SK TELECOM CORP. is in talks to buy SPRINT-NEXTEL (NYSE: S). Sprint, whose stock has lost half its value in the last year, is struggling to gain subscribers and has also reportedly been in talks with T-MOBILE. If a deal is reached, look for much of it to be backed by private equity groups, as SK Telecom has roughly half the market value of Sprint, valued at $22.6 billion.

NBCU (NYSE: GE) has sold 85% of its Beijing Olympic ad spots. NBC is getting roughly $750,000 per 30-second spot, which will equate to more than $1 billion in ad revenue. The revenue, which factors mid-day, primetime, late-night, cable and online advertisements, is expected to trump revenue from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

SONY (NYSE: SNE) has finally launched its long delayed video download service for PLAYSTATION 3. The store features a variety of SD and HD rentals and SD purchases from studios like Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures. Sony is playing catch up with MICROSOFT (NASD: MSFT), whose Xbox 360 offers a similar service, and who recently partnered with NETFLIX (NASD: NFLX) to expand the service.

INTEL’s (NASD: INTC) net income rose 25% to 1.6 billion from the second-quarter of 2007. The worlds largest chip maker said its revenue rose about 9% to $9.5 billion for the same quarter. Intel believes that a strong, worldwide demand for its microchips would continue to increase profits in the 3Q.