AOL is betting on an acquisition as a play to drive hits through free media. AOL paid $315 million for the Huffington Post, this represents a huge payday for Arianna Huffington, who owns a significant stake in the Post.
The Huffington Post is yet another in a long list of specialist websites that AOL has acquired recently. Huffington is by far the largest and could serve to bring a very large audience of news readers to AOL.
Arianna Huffington explains the merger this way, "By combining HuffPost with AOL’s network of sites, thriving video initiative, local focus, and international reach, we know we’ll be creating a company that can have an enormous impact, reaching a global audience on every imaginable platform."
So the real question is, will AOL truly leverage this and its other recent acquisitions into a viable patchwork of online content? Or will it simply write off yet another huge loss a year or two from now?
In some respects this is a first for the blogosphere. It will be interesting to see if other media companies/conglomerates begin to search the blogosphere for possible investments. Will they find others worth buying? If so, will these blogs fetch as much as the Huffington Post?
ReplyDeleteOr, will everyone bide their time and see how the AOL/Huffington marriage works out?
I believe we may see more of this, possibly on a somewhat smaller scale, $315 million seems like a large investment in virtually untested waters.
ReplyDeleteWaiting for other companies to do it may be too late.