10:00 AM -- As noted on Light Reading's message board last night, AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL), along with several private equity firms, is looking into taking over Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).

AOL hopes to use Yahoo to compete with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) in the online advertising market, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Though the discussions are still preliminary and don't even involve Yahoo yet, Yahoo's stock has been getting a boost from the rumors. It climbed 13% to $17.23 in after-hours trading yesterday.

Some, however, are less... optimistic. "It would be a deal of unprecedented irrelevance," Gawker declares.

In other news:

Verizon Wireless announced this morning that it will sell Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s iPad at 2,000 Verizon stores across the US starting on Oct. 28. Before you get too excited: Verizon will only be selling the WiFi version of the device. (See Verizon Gets iPad With a WiFi Twist.)

NBC Universal and Google have ended the online ad partnership they began in 2008 after NBCU "concluded that there was little value derived from having an Internet company sell its ads," AdWeek reports.

— Erin Barker, Digital Content Reporter, Light Reading Cable