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Update: Just over a month ago, Verizon revealed that it was set to acquire AOL. Now the acquisition has been completed with AOL becoming a part of Verizon officially today. The company was bought for $4.4 billion and from the sounds of it, Verizon aims to use the company to further its “digital and video platforms to drive future growth”.
Apparently Verizon largely bought AOL due to its growing advertising business. This does mean that Verizon owns AOL's media outlets, such as Engadget, TechCrunch and The Huffington Post, however, rumours have suggested that Verizon may sell these off.
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Original Story:
It looks like Verizon is set to buy out AOL for $4.4 billion, putting the company in control of all AOL businesses, including several news outlets such as The Huffington Post, Engadget, Tech Crunch along with AOL.com. Joystiq would have been included in the list but AOL chose to shut down the site a few months ago.
AOL also still has its dial-up Internet service running, which has 2.1 million subscribers, which alone is worth $180 million per quarter, though that number is declining. That's 2.1 million potential Verizon subscribers that the company could win over.
This would be Verizon's second biggest acquisition, following the buyout of Vodafone for $130 billion. Rumors surrounding Verizon buying out AOL began circulating earlier this year but back in January, the company's CEO denied the rumors and suggested that other media companies be considered instead.
Once bought out, AOL will retain its CEO and Chairman, Tim Armstrong. According to the internal company memo, AOL will still operate as normal, although it will now be a division of Verizon rather than its own thing. The Verge managed to get a hold of the full internal memo explaining what will happen after AOL merges with Verizon. You can read it, HERE.
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KitGuru Says: Verizon will have control of several large tech news outlets following this move, which could potentially play a role in the company's fight against Net Neutrality.
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Verizon just purchased some of its most vocal opponents in the world of journalism and the fight to maintain net neutrality. This purchase should have been squashed on anti-competitive grounds. That not being the case is true sign of how wide-spread corruption goes. This purchase isn’t just a win for Verizon, it is a win for Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Charter, and other anti-privacy, anti-net neutrality internet companies. The small world of media coverage just got a lot smaller, and far less unbiased.