AOL is in the very early stages of exploring a buyout of Yahoo, a leak this evening indicated. Private equity groups such as Blackstone Group and Silver Lake Partners have considered buying the search engine out but have reportedly talked to AOL about joining on a deal. Prospects mentioned to the WSJ would have China's Alibaba buy back Yahoo's 40 percent stake in its efforts to simplify a merger or even letting the normally much larger Yahoo buy AOL.
