AOL Inc has agreed to buy The Huffington Post, the influential and rapidly growing news, analysis and lifestyle Web site, for US$315 million, the struggling US Internet company announced yesterday.
The move would create a media group that would have a combined base of 117 million visitors a month in the US and reach 270 million people globally, AOL said in a statement.
The deal follows efforts by AOL’s chief executive Tim Armstrong to turn around the dial-up Internet access business by trying to turn it into a media and entertainment powerhouse, despite difficulties in attracting investors.
Photo: Reuters
AOL suffered sharp declines in advertising sales and dial-up subscriptions in the fourth quarter of last year, driving overall revenue down 26 percent.
Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, said on her blog that she would lead a newly formed The Huffington Post Media Group, which would integrate all Huffington Post and AOL content, as its president and editor-in-chief.
“By combining HuffPost with AOL’s network of sites, thriving video initiative, local focus and international reach, we know we’ll be creating a company that can have an enormous impact, reaching a global audience on every imaginable platform,” she said.
Approximately US$300 million would be paid in cash in the purchase, which has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and shareholders of The Huffington Post, though it needs US government approvals, AOL said.
The deal, expected to be closed in the late first, or early second quarter of this year, would combine AOL’s infrastructure and scale with The Huffington Post’s pioneering approach to news and innovative community building, AOL said.
“The acquisition of The Huffington Post will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community and social experiences for consumers,” Armstrong said in the statement.
AOL said the acquisition would accelerate its strategy to deliver an array of premium news, analysis and entertainment.
The Huffington Post, started in 2005, has grown into one of the most heavily visited news Web sites in the US.
“The Huffington Post has already been growing at a prodigious rate. But my New Year’s resolution for 2011 was to take HuffPost to the next level — not just incrementally, but exponentially,” Huffington said in her blog.
She said the Huffington Post decided early this year to expand into more local news coverage, launch international sections (starting with HuffPost Brazil) and increase original video content.
Purchase by AOL, with its network of blogs such as AutoBlog, Music, AOL Latino, Black Voices, its local news operation Patch.com and new video-production studios, would allow these goals to be met, she said
“Far from changing our editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, this moment will be for HuffPost like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet,” she said. “We’re still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we’re now going to get there much, much faster.”
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”