I plucked this one off the wire....

Time Warner Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are in advanced talks over Microsoft buying a stake in Time Warner's America Online unit, the New York Post reported on Thursday.

Citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the Post said the talks concern Microsoft acquiring an AOL stake and then combining it with Microsoft's Web unit MSN.

Microsoft would pay some money to Time Warner for the AOL stake, leaving the two companies approximately equal partners in the venture, the Post said.

A Time Warner spokeswoman declined to comment. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners who said he himself was not aware of the talks, said that he thought any such deal could be premature for Time Warner, even if a combination could reduce costs.

"It feels to me like AOL is at the cusp of really proving itself from a portal perspective," he said. "I'm not sure why this is the moment to do it. They could get a much better valuation in a couple of months when they prove it more."

He added that investors are currently not giving AOL a valuation of more than $10 billion, but that the online service could eventually fetch a valuation in the $15 billion to $20 billion range.