Community Corner

AOL, Patch's Parent Company, Buys Huffington Post

AOL purchases HuffPo and co-founder Arianna Huffington will become president and editor-in-chief of a new AOL division that will include Patch.

On Sunday Feb 7, Patch's parent company AOL announced an agreement to acquire The Huffington Post. As part of the transaction, Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post's Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, will be named President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will integrate all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, StyleList, and more.

In a blog post announcing the deal late Sunday, Huffington counted down a number of goals she had previously laid out as part of her New Year's resolution. Among those goals was a desire to expand into more local news coverage. Huffington said she sees the new partnership with AOL, and Patch in particular, as the realization of that goal.

 

"Let's go down the checklist: Local? AOL's Patch.com covers 800 towns across America, providing an incredible infrastructure for citizen journalism in time for the 2012 election, and a focus on community and local solutions that have been an integral part of HuffPost's DNA. Check."

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Co-founded six years ago by Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer, The Huffington Post has become one of the fastest-growing properties on the Internet and the new Huffington Post Media Group created out of the deal will have a combined user base of 117 million unique visitors a month in the United States, with 270 million monthly unique visitors globally, according to December 2010 data released by the  Internet marketing research company comScore.

"The acquisition of The Huffington Post will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community, and social experiences for consumers," said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL in a press release announcing the deal. "Together, our companies will embrace the digital future and become a digital destination that delivers unmatched experiences for both consumers and advertisers."

Armstrong continued, "Arianna is a singularly passionate and dedicated champion of innovative journalistic engagement, and a master of the art of using new media to illuminate, entertain and enhance the national conversation. Arianna is a remarkable person and she will continue to create remarkable outcomes for the combined company."

AOL has reported the total purchase price of The Huffington Post at $315 million, approximately $300 million of which will be paid in cash, with the rest paid in stock. The Huffington Post is privately owned by its two co-founders, as well as a group of investors.

Both companies' boards of directors as well as Huffington Post shareholders have already approved the transaction, though the deal is still subject to customary closing conditions, including  government approval. The transaction is expected to close in the late first- or early second-quarter of 2011.

To see the official AOL press release regarding the acquisition, click here.


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