Verizon Agrees To Buy AOL For $4.4 Billion

The all-cash deal would end AOL’s short second life as an independent company.

Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL Inc.

Brendan McDermid / Reuters

AOL's short second life as an independent media and online advertising company will end as it agreed to be bought by Verizon for $4.4 billion, the companies announced Tuesday.

The all-cash deal would give Verizon, a wireless and internet data provider, a digital video and advertising business along with AOL's expensively acquired news properties like the Huffington Post, Engadget, and Tech Crunch.

For Tim Armstrong, the chief executive of AOL who will continue to run the company following the deal, the acquisition provides relief from public market scrutiny that came from trying to run an online advertising and content business smaller than giants like Yahoo, Facebook or Google. Verizon chief executive officer Lowell McAdams said in a statement the tie-up "supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience."

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Armstrong said that the combined Yahoo and Verizon would be "what I think is the largest mobile and video business in the United States." The $50-a-share also provides a nice premium over AOL's closing price of $42.59; the stock only briefly hovered over $50 in the beginning of 2014. The company had $1.9 billion in revenues last year, but only $206 million million in operating profits.

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