Microsoft still betting two losers can make a winner. In talks with AOL

I’ve got to hand it to Ballmer. He has the tenacity of a master salesman. You know, the kind of guy you grudgingly buy from just to get him to go away. Mr. Steve seems to be convinced Microsoft lacks the needed recipe to bake it’s own internet operation, so the company that tried to buy Yahoo without success is still on the hunt for internet properties. Undaunted by the lack of any synergies, MS is now looking at hooking up with AOL.

Microsoft is meeting with AOL executives Wednesday to talk about the two companies combining AOL and Microsoft’s online division, according to a news report.

Microsoft, spurned in its recent efforts to buy all or part of Yahoo, wants to explore ways to combine with AOL, according to the Wall Street Journal. The two companies have been discussing a possible deal for months as an alternative to Microsoft buying Yahoo, the Journal reported in its online edition Wednesday afternoon. (The Industry Standard)

Free advice for Mr Ballmer. There are plenty of very bright folks at Microsoft who could create a real internet business in house. The problem is the company’s culture. Any new business that seems to minutely threaten an existing one gets buried. It’s the sort of culture that dooms trying to do anything on the level of Google. Change that culture and you can do great things. That’s also what makes joining forces with AOL a very bad idea. AOL suffers from the same cultural defect.