Google may bid for America Online in a move to prevent a Microsoft takeover and protect some $382 million in annual search-related revenue that Google gets as its share from AOL, its biggest partner, according to at least one analyst, writes CNET. The move would also "enable Google to keep 100 percent of (AOL's) search advertising revenues as well as gain a significant amount of content," according to Lauren Rich Fine, an analyst at Merrill Lynch.

Microsoft and AOL's parent Time Warner were reported to be in talks last weeks on merging AOL with MSN as one way to counter the Google threat in the portal and search market. They have also apparently considered AOL's switching its search engine from Google to MSN, reducing Google's earnings per share 5-10 percent (AOL generated roughly 12 percent, or $382 million, of Google's revenues in 2004).

The Merrill Lynch speculation came as Google raised nearly $4.2 billion in a secondary stock offering.