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AOL (s aol), the New York-based online media company, is on the verge of acquiring TechCrunch, the online blogging network started by former attorney, Michael Arrington. The deal is at a sensitive stage and might fall apart yet, but I don’t think so. Sources familiar with both entities says that the announcement is likely to come onstage at Disrupt, TechCrunch’s flagship conference currently underway in San Francisco.
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is likely to make an appearance at the conference, and perhaps that’s when the announcement is likely to be made. Michael Arrington was unreachable for comment, and AOL has not returned my calls. I still don’t know the terms of the deal, and will update the post accordingly.
AOL in the past had acquired Weblogs Inc., the blogging company behind popular sites such as Engadget. Those blogs have helped AOL compensate for steep loss of traffic. The service has been in the market to buy a technology blog, and is rumored to have been linked with other technology blogs.
On a more personal note, I think this is great news for Mike and his crew. I remember Mike starting out by writing long reviews of web startups in 2005. We often talked about the world of technology and discussed where it was all headed. In the years that have passed, he turned his blog into a company and brought in Heather Harde to run his operation. The company has launched series of events, with TechCrunch SF being the latest. I want to congratulate Mike and his crew on their success.
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Photo of Michael Arrington by Joi Ito via Flickr under Creative Commons.
I’m giving away a $25 iTunes gift card to whoever is the closest at guessing how much TechCrunch sells for, tweet me your guess – @kevinfleming
I think we should all speculate on price – my guess will be $35 to $40 mil. TC’s a premier web property but not a massively profitable cash-cow. Its viewership has steadily grown in the last few years, but not the number of interested sponsors. The conferences (now 2x per year) have come to represent what the ‘business’ of TC is all about. How else could the site support such a sizeable full-time staff for a blog. Congrats Mike if this is true/happens. The timing certainly makes sense – might as well bag the revenue of TC SF before handing over the reins.
Great Mike. Sorry for the writers like MG, Alexis, etc……. This will be a major blow to the new AOL employees.
I don’t like it!
Can’t help but be sad to see a change to my daily reader linked to AOL :(
To have Engadget, TUAW, and TC all under one network? I don’t know, I feel like there’s some duplication and cross-over there.
It is good for mike, but i wonder whether TechCrunch will be the same after losing its independence
Aolnews.com has a backlink to engadget.com with an anchor text “Tech News”. Will it be switched to point to TC if this sale happens? Currently with this search term, Engadget is #4 in Google and TC #9.
well at least it will finally be over, i needed just one little reason to never care about techcrunch again
I hear you. I won’t hear them. LMAOL
Well, I guess goodbye TechCrunch, I hardly knew ye…
what! no more angelgate traffic?
Isn’t being bought by AOL just shy of the Kiss of Death?
Gosh I sure hope not. That will surely mean the end of TechCrunch!
http://www.web-privacy.it.tc
Do you think the Angelgate reporting from Arrington, was linked to the fact that he was talking with AOL? It was pretty bold of him to be burning some bridges.
My conspiracy theory Arrington style :)
I have a tendency to trust independent news rather than corporations. If AOL buy TechCrunch, I suspect I may stop reading it.
I think so too.
Me too.
TC will loose the charm it has now and will become just yet another mainstream Tech blog.
Given Arrington’s coverage of companies that he’s an investor in, on the board of, or an advisor to, I think that’s a little naive.
Worth reading this if you haven’t:
http://valleywag.gawker.com/tech/techcrunch/disclosure-scrubbed-at-techcrunch-210794.php
Clearly this is @arrington’s move to get a whack of cash and then become a SUPERANGEL. He’ll even be able to hang out at Bin 38.
I haven’t paid much attention to AOL since they started shifting away from being a walled garden company. Is this purchase a good thing or a bad thing?
HUGE MISTAKE, only AOL is capable of.
What, no leaked emails? That would have been ironic. Great scoop!
First feeling: don’t know if it’s good or bad for the Web2.0 scene. Wait to see what’s happening!
PS: OM, when it’s your turn?
How much?
We should have those details soon.
Techcrunch is making about $10 million/year, according to Inc. magazine.
How much AOL would pay? 10x the revenue? 5x? Sometime ago (2 years, i think) it said Techcrunch is valued at about $100 million…
I’d say something like 30-40M$
“Techcrunch is making about $10 million/year, according to Inc. magazine.”
I’m assuming you meant that they’re pulling in $10 million a year in revenue, not making $10 million a year in profit.
Wish they’d still have the pricing on their ads like in the past.
I also asume there’s plenty of placed content (specially by Apple, anybody read MG Siegler will suspect this)
According to compete they have about 2,300,000 uniques a month, but compete always underestimates, so they probably have an average of 3,000,000.
To round up, say their avg CPM is about $25 x 2,300 = that’s about $57,000 for just one ad
They have well over 10 ads, plus lots of links and content placed by Sillicon Valley’s creme de la creme. Let’s say they make good $700k, maybe even a $1,000,000 per month.
Multiply by 5 years, that’s close to $100mil considering the Michael Arrington brand who’s been quoted in every news outlet worldwide.
I guess I was aiming too high, they’re reporting mere $25mil.
This puts MG’s post on TC into new light: Internet Innovation Is Like The Auto Industry In The 1950s — Big, Stagnant Companies Rule
A really good move for AOL. If they play this right post-acquisition, they have a slight chance of losing the non-savvy/uncool image.
If it happens, I am going to miss the “Arrington touch” in TechCrunch. Good luck with them.
Don’t you think he’d stay on and continue to develop content and cull stories for them? He’s such a huge force there that I’d be surprised if the deal didn’t involve him staying on for at least some predetermined amount of time.
Possible. But I doubt he can continue his fierce independent streak with AOL looking over his shoulder.
Wow! Congrats to Arrington and team. Hope it’s a huge sum… There’s no denying TechCrunch is a huge media force. This is a very smart move for AOL.
Trying to find out the price :-D
I hope it won’t be an “undisclosed” amount… We really want to know the price :D
Oh this is great! Everything that AOL touches turns to gold! Oh wait, they fail at business…
Ok, ok – turning the live stream back on! ;) Wow.
Well, I guess interruption was good for a few minutes!
Good deal for Mike A. Good news for Heather Harde, too… now she has a career path. Saul Hansell should make guest appearances on TechCrunch TV… he could be like the Tosh.0 guy.
If true, this will be the death of TC
Why do you say that?
Engadget has been doing great under AOL for the past 5 years.
Because AOL has the reverse Midas Touch.
I would think because being bought by AOL is about as timely as being bought by the East India Company. I hope Arrington gets a lot of cash for his retirement (or next startup), but being owned by AOL puts a neon sign reading “Owned by obsolete old fogies” on the place.
Seriously… this sounds like Mike is taking a cash payment to ride off into the sunset, safe in the knowledge AOL won’t have a clue on how to manage the TC brand.
The only way this makes sense to me is if TC wanted to reach a more mainstream audience. Unfortunately that would’ve worked a lot better back when AOL was still part of Time Warner. So I’m not sure where AOL is planning to go with this. Granted, their strength is the portfolio of online content they own (http://corp.aol.com/products-services/content), but is there a synergy there I’m missing? Is AOL going to bring a bigger audience to the table? … better advertising revenue? I suppose it’s possible.
It just seems an odd union. It’s not like AOL is at the center of the tech universe. Headquarters on the “other” coast, dwindling email and subscriber offerings, etc.
He probably think that Michael Arrington will leave TC.
It will be the death of TC because Mike won’t want to work for AOL. Without him TC is nothing.
Why would you say that? AOL owns a lot of great web properties that haven’t died off, most notably the old Weblogs Inc network (Engadget, Joystiq, Autoblog, TUAW, etc)
I agree.
I agree as well.
@Om – From my subjective view, I don’t like being a part of sites/blogs that are owned by large media conglomerates. I don’t even like reading those sites generally because you never really know if the stories are biased or have some arterial motive. Yes, you could argue that is the case with any site, but my take is that happens a lot more on the large AOL/Yahoo!/etc. owned sites. People want to part of a community/blog/etc. that isn’t a part of some large corporate Walmart style empire. They want something that is unique…their own.
I agree with you, @Andrew
Good point and I am betting AOL will try and keep that intact. Or at least one hopes they would.
Arterial motive. What are you trying to say there? ;-)
i too agree…alos it wil create confusion which site to choose…be it crunchgear or engadget,mobilecrunch or engadget mobile…
Wow! Why was Yahoo not in the race to acquire TechCrunch?
Not even Yahoo wants ’em.