Verizon buys AOL and HuffPost for $ 4.4 billion – TF1

Verizon announced Tuesday the acquisition for $ 4.4 billion of the search engine AOL , whose title flew to Wall Street. The US telecommunications group acquires all AOL activities including the online newspaper The Huffington Post and TechCrunch specialized site. The transaction, still subject to approval by competition authorities, should be finalized this summer, Verizon says in a statement.

In electronic trading before the opening of the formal session on the New York Stock Exchange, AOL share jumped from 18.57% to 50.50 dollars (while Verizon offers $ 50 per share) and the Verizon let go 0.82% to 49.39 dollars.

The operation according enables Verizon to get the group “to the next level in the development of its digital platforms and video.” The merger of the two companies makes it possible to create a “raised platform offering, mainly directed to the mobile targeting advertising market estimated by (research firm) eMarketer to nearly $ 600 billion worldwide,” said the telecommunications operator.

Verizon acquires a strong portfolio of websites

Among the assets listed AOL including its offers subscriptions, its portfolio of well known brands such as The Huffington Post and TechCrunch but Endgadget, Makers or aol.com site, its productions of independent online video cable operators (over-the-top video) and its technologies for automated buying and selling of advertising space on the internet.

“This acquisition reinforces our strategy to provide connectivity to multiple screens to our customers, our designers and our advertisers,” commented the CEO of Verizon Lowell McAdam. “AOL is again become a pioneer of digital and we look forward to the prospect of drawing a new path together in the world. ”

AOL was once the property of another large group, Time Warner, who had bought at a high price ($ 165 billion) in 2001 just before the bursting of the Internet bubble and was separated in 2009. An activist fund Starboard Value suggested late September AOL merged with its competitor Yahoo! but the boss of AOL Tim Armstrong had then noted that his group had ” a considerable scale. ” His company has recently strengthened in the online video advertising in particular through a partnership the French group Publicis or buying Adap.tv, a company specializing in online video advertising in 2013.