AOL buys The Huffington Post for $315mlnFebruary 7, 2011 - 15:15 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - AOL has agreed to buy the second most popular news website in the U.S., The Huffington Post, for US$315 million, it said in a statement on February 7. The purchase brings a potent new web property to AOL, in addition to other major acquisitions the company has made in recent months. Last September, AOL bought technology news provider TechCrunch and its family of websites. The Huffington Post ranked second in the U.S. only behind New York Times branded-sites in a poll of online newspapers by ComScore last November. The site garnered 26 million unique visitors that month, compared to 34.6 million for New York Times sites. AOL will create a next-generation American media company with global reach with the acquisition of The Huffington Post, it said in the statement. "Following the close of this transaction, AOL will accelerate its strategy to deliver a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, and entertainment produced by thousands of writers, editors, reporters, and videographers around the globe," AOL said in a statement. Arianna Huffington, who co-founded the Huffington Post in 2005, will be named President and Editor-in-Chief of a new division at AOL that will integrate all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, and more. The new division, called The Huffington Post Media Group, will likely face scrutiny as it is implemented. AOL has retained many of the founders of news websites purchased over the years, such as Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, and left them largely in control of their domains. AOL will have to avoid alienating those news leaders as it builds the new division. The addition of The Huffington Post will give AOL's group of sites a combined base of 117 million unique visitors a month in the U.S. and 270 million a month worldwide, the company said. "The Huffington Post will continue on the same path we have been on for the last six years – though now at light speed – by combining with AOL," Huffington said in the AOL statement. "Our readers will still be able to come to the Huffington Post at the same URL, and find all the same content they've grown to love, plus a lot more," she added, IDG News Service reported. Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | Titus, Bilirakis lead legislation to sanction Azerbaijani war criminals Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) have introduced the bipartisan legislation. Azerbaijan must respect human rights, Scholz tells Aliyev German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for greater respect for human rights in Azerbaijan. Armenia: Defense Ministry warns against involving army in political processes The Ministry’s statement came after a video surfaced online, showing soldiers joining the protests in Tavush. Scholz hopes Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty will be signed this year German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes that a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be signed this year. |