The New York Times
The Huffington Post, which began in 2005 with a meager $1 million investment and has grown into one of the most heavily visited news Web sites in the country, is being acquired by AOL in a deal that creates an unlikely pairing of two online media giants.
The two companies completed the sale Sunday evening and announced the deal just after midnight on Monday. AOL will pay $315 million, $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock. It will be the company’s largest acquisition since it was separated from Time Warner in 2009.
Found by Cinàedh.
I don’t get it. Its the quality/dedication of the management that provides the quality of the website and what is going to keep that going once the principals are rich/rich/rich? but then, thats why I didn’t buy/try to buy Google when it went public, along with the general aversion to the public’s rip off that is always present in any/every IPO.
Nice gal Arrianna. I like Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation as well. Makes me think of metaphors.
I guess AOL didn’t learn it’s lesson from the whole Time Warner thing.
What a horrendous waste of money. The shareholders should sue.
So AOL want’s to lean into the already overcrowded Radial Left? How are they going to recoup their investment? At least MSNBC is getting smart and going centrist.
Not to mention, $300 MILLION!! Unbelievable! Consider this: AOL could have paid 30 good quality web reporters and news aggregators $100,000 per year for 100 YEARS and still not spent so much.
There is no way Huffington Post is worth 1/10 what AOL paid.
This will surely be known as the last nail in the coffin for AOL.
A fool and his money were lucky to hook-up in the first place. I say DU Unplugged should put a short on AOL. They gave $300 million to an old broad who’s claim to fame was being so lame in the sack that she turned her billionaire ex-husband gay. Way to fail, guys!
Seriously?
“has grown into one of the most heavily visited news Web sites in the country…”
The HO is not news, it’s an opinion website.
Just went to Huff Po. since they only publish half of my responses, I don’t go there as much as I would otherwise. In early days it was much more comment and news aggragation but in fairness, I think some original reporting is going on.
It would be “nice” to see what could happen to a blog that did fund original investigation though–but could it compete financially? Probably not. AOL trying to buy success though is a total fail. Talk about an entity searching for relevance? Ha, ha.
BTW–Alert Perkel. Huff Po has a nice link to “The Worlds Smartest Squirrel.” No smarter than rats, but prettier.
AOL? I didn’t know dial-up was still so popular.
Impossible that women could be so bad in bed so as to turn one gay. Now, if they don’t show up in the first place, that could do it “theoretically” over a eon of time? Ha, ha. Other than one occasion in Russia, I find my sex like my beer- some better than others, but never a bad one. ((Note: just because you put the label “beer” on a bottle, doesn’t mean the swill on the inside is actually beer–even at 3 cents a bottle off the back of the truck.))
I could have sworn that Eva Gabor died a while ago.
It is not surprising that the NY Times would label a liberal commentary site as news.
#6 & #8, I think what #3 meant was that Michael Huffington was so traumatized by having sex with Arianna, that he turned gay to try and recover from the experience. Makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit just thinking about it.
Short article on what AOL has been up to besides losing $782MM:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/02/AR2011020203299.html
Mr Windows: can you imagine “any” sex with a woman that bad?==without the loss of blood?
Ha, ha. “Turning Gay” a homophobes worst fear. No fear if one is straight though.
The Huff is bigger than the NYT now. Not surprising.
Sounds like a match made in heaven. They deserve each other.
“Keith Olbermann will announce what the next chapter of his career will be in a conference call at 11 AM on Tuesday.”
Boy, it’s just nothing but good news. Hows that right wing dominated media doing?
All we need now is for that glassy eyed zealot spawn of hell Katrina vanden Heuvel to start a new project.
I wonder if Arianna Huffington will be giving 90% of her take from this to the govt since she thinks they are so much better at spending everyone’s money.
funny how the far left libs are do as I say not as I do when it comes to their money
Arianna Huffington strikes me as a carpetbagger liberal rather than the real thing.
Worse, she the kind of liberal who forms the circular firing squads the Democrats are so famous for.
But I got to give her credit for seeing a niche and filling it.
>> PMitchell said, on February 7th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
>> funny how the far left libs are do as I say not as I do when it comes to their money
_FAR LEFT_?!?!
If Huffington seems far left to you — you must be a huckuva far right wing zany!
Huffington Post is one of the few media outlets worth reading.
Arianna Huffington is impressive, articulate and will bring prestige to AOL who lost its way in the second generation internet.
AOL has $300,000,000 in cash?!?!?!
Even my dodo bible-belt reborn Luddite brother has finally given dial-up the boot.
I didn’t even know the Army Of Losers was still in business!
I’d say bad deal.
The way I see it the only thing just about any website has to distinguish it from all the also rans is the management.
In they sell it usually means the no longer have control and/or they no longer feel the drive to make it succeed and its no longer a good investment.
I think I’m starting to see that with Leo over at twit with Leo. He wants to go on vacation for three weeks rather than build the franchise. Nothing wrong with that but the franchise starts to drift and next thing you know somebody with the drive he’s lost has taken the lead.
The HuffPo has actually hired quite a few journalists, (what the heck J-School graduates are running the streets begging for work,) but they are primarily a news aggregator.
What makes the HuffPo different is that they have opened the site to commentary by the great unwashed, (sort of like this site, doan’chano, 🙂 where ignorant people can see their opinions vanish into the general hubbub.
Then again, its possible to get to the NYT website and leave comments there that are just as relevant.
My phrase for it is: “Trying to steer an elephant from a vantage point slightly in front of and below its tail.”
Its like punditry which is: “Trying to guess at the direction of an elephant from a vantage point slightly in front of and below its tail.
And by the way, my own comments on this blog are strictly because I like to see my own opinions on a screen, not because I think anybody else could/should/would give a damn.
If anyone agree with me, whooppee!
If not, who gives a fuck?
Hey Animby!
Not anymore.
Conservatives haven’t really done anything innovative in news since talk radio (which was brilliant, btw). That’s why they hate the Huff.
So the white whale (AOL) finally manages to consume Ahab (H.Post) whole. And now comes the part where the Beast temps the rest of the loyal crew to follow, to their deaths. Seems I’ve heard this story before…. somewhere.
whoa… killing two demented birds with no stones
Good news, that’s the end of the PuffinStuffington Post. He Ha He He……
Whatever………………………………..
Traaxx
I’m just hoping they’ll flood every store in America with billions of free Huffington Post CD’s. You can make such cool stuff out of them — mailbox reflectors and mobiles to hang over baby cribs and such.
#25 agreed. The right seized on the fact that conservatives still use AM radio.
So now AOL is a porn site?