The most expensive Internet company 90 sold for $ 4.4 billion – RBC

The acquisition of AOL will help accelerate the development of Verizon increasing demand video services – Wireless LTE-video, and technology OTT (Over the Top), involving the delivery of video over the Internet to the user without direct contact with the operator. The transaction will also facilitate the development platform created within the increasingly popular concept of the Internet of Things (Internet of Things), follows from a press release Verizon.

The announced transaction is fit to the observed trend in the telecommunications market for technological diversification in an increasingly active use of mobile devices and video platforms.

Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the United States, will pay for each share of AOL for $ 50, which represents a 17 percent premium to the market price at the close of trading AOL on Monday.

«Shine and poverty» AOL

AOL , until 2006 known as America Online, pioneered the development of the Internet industry, was one of the first providers of Internet access services through a dial-up (dial-up). Booming growth of the company, offers users a revolutionary for its time, the services took place in the 1990s.

In 2001, AOL merged with media conglomerate Time Warner. The deal worth $ 186.2 billion was the largest in the history of corporate America – but also the most disastrous. The merger, which initially led to the creation of the colossus worth $ 350 billion, was a fiasco turned record losses for companies and huge losses for shareholders. In 2009, AOL and Time Warner «divorced,” and the new AOL capitalization was only $ 3.4 billion.

The new business strategy for AOL, aiming at revenues from Internet advertising, as well as the introduction of advertising services bore fruit, turning the company into a direct competitor of such big players like Google and Facebook. Parallel to get rid of AOL services era Web 1.0 (for example, in 2010, sold for $ 187.5 million once indispensable messenger ICQ Russian fund Digital Sky Technologies – now Mail.ru Group).

In April 2015 AOL It presented a technology that allows to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, depending on the platform on which it is shown. In an interview with Bloomberg AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said that the company can keep track of user activity on 100 million devices in the US and according to the interests of their owners translatable to adjust them targeted advertising.

Among the current key assets AOL – subscriber base and various web resources, such as AOL.com (news aggregator, and the postal service), The Huffington Post (online edition, and blog aggregator that brings together 56 sites), TechCrunch (tehnoblog) and MapQuest (map service), as well as software advertising services, which account for about half of global advertising nepoiskovogo traffic AOL.

The transaction will be conducted through a tender offer to the shareholders, followed by AOL merger. Upon completion of the transaction AOL will become a wholly owned subsidiary Verizon. The transaction is subject to approval by regulatory authorities, its closure is scheduled for this summer. It will be financed with cash and commercial paper Verizon. To pass Verizon AOL debt of $ 300 million.