Google won Microsoft in the race to take over AOL images 1 Search service has agreed to pay $ 1 billion to get 5% of America Online's shares. This is a "lightning news" for Microsoft, the first company to consider acquiring AOL before Google for 8 months.

Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner, and Eric Schmidt of Google reached an agreement last week but details of the talks have not been disclosed.

Holding AOL, the largest customer and estimated to bring 9% of revenue to Google in 2005, the search firm will be able to cope with Yahoo and MSN's news and entertainment websites.

Meanwhile, Parsons needed Google's search and advertising technology to boost AOL's revenue and release pressure from shareholders - billionaire Carl Icahn. He demanded a stock price increase for Time Warner (down 7% this year) and threatened to sue the company's board if the situation did not improve.

Time Warner shares rose 16 cents to $ 18 last week. Google's stock price is currently at $ 430.15 while Microsoft is down 2 cents to $ 26.90 on the Nasdaq stock market.