THE spectacular collapse of the “new economy” left a few key players standing. Thanks to the rapid growth of the web and the boom in online advertising, those firms have become some of the biggest on the planet.

Now they are duking it out in a fight over a company that ironically came to represent the zenith and the nadir of the millennial dotcom craze.

In recent weeks Microsoft’s MSN, web search engine Google, cable company Comcast and Yahoo are all believed to have approached Time Warner about buying a stake in America Online.

In 2000, Time Warner swapped its treasure trove of assets, including Warner Brothers and CNN, to take over AOL. The stock market collapsed not long after and AOL became embroiled in accounting controversies that further decimated its value. Five years on, Time Warner is still struggling to get its share price back up after the deal — dubbed “the worst deal in history”.

But now AOL is hot again.

The company already has an alliance with Google, but as Time Warner explores its strategy, that deal is under review.

“AOL is big and it’s available,” said one analyst. “AOL is already strategically and financially important to Google. This is a big chance for them to consolidate that position.”

It is also a big chance for Google’s rivals, especially Microsoft, to spoil the party.

In 2002, Google ousted rival Overture to become AOL’s search engine. The deal was crucial to Google’s development. AOL has slipped behind Yahoo and Microsoft in terms of the number of visitors but it still attracts 72.5m people a month. The deal underwrote a huge boost in traffic for Google, ultimately catapulting it toward its flotation.

Advertisers pay Google for the ads its search engine generates alongside a customer’s search. Google says more of those customers come from AOL than any other source.

Google gives AOL a cut of the advertising revenue generated by AOL customers, about 12% of its total revenues. Last year, it turned over $300m (£170m) in revenue to AOL.

AOL may still be a black sheep — and the company is still losing customers — but losing AOL would be a serious blow for Google.

Overture’s shares fell 37% on the day the Google deal was announced.

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