According to the media reports, that at first seemed to be rumors, Verizon was going to buy AOL. But yesterday it was made official by Verizon that the company is going to buy AOL with all its sub-divisions. Verizon has acquired AOL in a $4.4 Billion bid. This gives Verizon a large portion of the content farm on the Internet. Following this deal, Verizon will be the owner of AOL’s news websites. These websites include some popular names like the TechCrunch, Engadget, and The Huffington Post. There were many theories pertaining the acquisition of AOL by Verizon, but one of them clicked us. AOL would be used by Verizon in the advertising platform of their Mobile Streaming Services as AOL currently has more than 30000 partners. According to Verizon’s official press statement, this deal is being made to make the LTE Video Platform – Their Mobile Streaming Service to extend further. The deal also focuses on their OTT Video Strategy.
But the deal now seems to be concerning to some people. But why is that? As readers on the Internet have already seen Verizon plans of making people buy their perspective fo Net Neutrality, US Government Surveillance, and other sensitive topics by their TechBlog SugarString. SugarString was caught red-handed and was eventually shut down. Buying the AOL with their news divisions makes a lot of us thinking whether this is Verizon’s Plan B. As of now, TechCrunch and Engadget have started working under Verizon, and this situation in which both of the news websites find themselves is quite concerning or I may say worrying. The question here is will the staff and writers of Engadget and TechCrunch keep on writing free from the influence of Verizon? Will they put the originality of their content and their reputation ahead of the corporate interference between AOL and Verizon?
On asking for any potential conflict that could occur between AOL and Verizon on the content of the news and interests, Verizon stated that Tim Armstrong will continue to be the CEO of AOL and will be working and managing his sub-division like before. AOL’s CEO has also reportedly send out a memo to his employees that they will continue to work with the same mindset but as a division of Verizon from here onwards.