Last month, it was announced that Verizon was buying AOL. Yes the company that used to play the “You’ve got Mail” whenever you logged into your email. AOL owns a whole lot of video – the main reason why Verizon was interested in them. As well as a few media outlets including Huffington Post and TechCrunch. Verizon had agreed with AOL to acquire the company for $4.4 Billion, and now it’s finally official. From Verizon’s blog:
“Verizon Communications Inc. and AOL Inc. today announced the successful completion of Verizon’s tender offer to purchase all outstanding shares of AOL for $50.00 per share in cash. The tender offer expired at 11:59 p.m. (New York City time) on June 22, 2015.”
Current AOL CEO, Tim Armstrong will continue to lead operations of the company after closing. With Bob Toohey, president of Verizon Digital Media Services, reporting to Armstrong. “Verizon’s Digital Media Services uses world-class technology to help companies prepare, deliver and display digital media content including video, web pages, applications, mobile ads and live events on any screen.” Tim Armstrong will be reporting to Marni Walden, who is Verizon’s EVP and President of Product Innovation and New Businesses.
Who exactly is AOL? This should clear things up, “AOL is a media technology company with a mission to simplify the internet for consumers and creators by unleashing the world’s best builders of culture and code. As one of the largest online properties in the U.S., with approximately 200 million monthly consumers of its premium brands, AOL is at the center of disruption of how content is being produced, distributed, consumed and monetized by connecting publishers with advertisers on its global, programmatic content and advertising platforms.”
The biggest reason that Verizon bought AOL was for their upcoming video streaming service. This brings in a lot of content to that video streaming service which is likely to be announced later this year. Verizon had stated numerous times they were not interested in buying AOL. However they did. So just remember that when the company says they are not interested in merging with Dish. We will see, very soon how AOL fits into Verizon’s plan. Not only are they a wireless carrier, but much like AT&T they are also an ISP and cable provider through Fiber connections.