On-Line Valuations: AOL Purchases Huffington Post for $315 Million

News and entertainment blog The Huffington Post agreed to be acquired by rebounding AOL for $315 million. The primary significance of this is that AOL, attempting to rebound from its descent into virtual irrelevance, has determined from a strategic standpoint that Huff Post's positioning can contribute to that rebuilding effort. The second interesting point is that Huff Post was advised that the amount offered, presumable negotiated over some period of time, was a good price. Since the on-line citizenry are accustomed to seeing billions rather than millions proffered in the on-line, tech-related space, this is a useful benchmark for assessing the value of content-driven, tangentially tech-y properties. CNN has the story:


"AOL has agreed to purchase The Huffington Post for $315 million, the two entities announced in a joint news release Monday.

"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 include all Huffington Post and AOL content," the statement said.

The new group will have a combined 117 million unique visitors a month in the United States and 270 million around the world, according to the release, which cited December 2010 data from the marketing research company comScore.

"Our readers will still be able to come to the Huffington Post at the same URL, and find all the same content they've grown to love, plus a lot more -- more local, more tech, more entertainment, more finance, and lots more video," Huffington said in the statement.

The boards of directors of each company and shareholders of The Huffington Post have approved the transaction, but the proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of government approvals, the two groups said.

The transaction is expected to close in the late first- or early second-quarter of this year, according to the statement.