Yahoo and AOL Elope…Maybe.

Desperate to escape the clutches of Microsoft, Yahoo is running straight into the arms of AOL, according to the Wall St. Journal.

Call it a shot-gun marriage, call it an act of desperation, call it a strategic disaster but one thing is for sure, the online world of the giants could be a lot more interesting if you’ve got Google, Microsoft and Yahoo-AOL battling for dominance rather than just a two-man battle featuring Google vs. Microsoft.

Then again, an AOL-Yahoo marriage will time a lot of time and effort to consummate – if it ever happens. This, of course, could just be a huge bargaining ploy by Yahoo to pull more money out of Microsoft but why go through the motions for two months before striking a deal?

If the deal does happen, Yahoo-AOL will be an online content powerhouse. The question is how it capitalizes on its advertising potential. Google, which will owns a stake in AOL-Yahoo, could the X factor to make the deal work.

Interesting times indeed.

For more, check out Silicon Valley Insider, which calls the AOL-Yahoo deal a “smart combination”.

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