Google and Time Warner trumpeted a deal for the search company to acquire 5 percent of AOL for $1 billion last December; the agreement included the bare outlines of a wide-ranging advertising/marketing relationship. Conversations with various execs then left the strong impression that the nitty-gritty details weren’t close to being finalized. Nearly three months later, a Google SEC filing today says the two have yet to enter a definitive agreement on what is described as “certain commercial arrangements.”
The filing says the two “have substantially completed negotiations with respect to definitive agreements governing this $1 billion investment in AOL and Google expects that the investment will close in the second quarter of 2006.” But negotiations on the commercial arrangements continue; the deadline has been extended to March 17 and “Google expects that the parties will continue to extend this time period until the negotiations on the commercial agreements have been completed.  Google expects to enter into definitive agreements with respect to the arrangements described in the Letter Agreement in either the first or second quarter of 2006.

The outlines of the ad/marketing deal:—creating an AOL Marketplace through white labeling of Google ad technology.
—expanding display advertising throughout the Google network.

—collaborattion on video search and prominence for AOL Video within Google Video

—Google marketing credits for AOL

—Interoperability between AIM and Google Talk “provided certain conditions are met”

Google also filed its 2005 10K today. More on that in a bit.