AOL to Acquire Weblogs, Inc.
Paid Content is reporting AOL will acquire Jason Calacanis' Weblogs Inc., a two and a half year-old network of 75-plus weblogs including Engadget, Autoblog and AdJab. The deal is said to be finalized with plans in place to announce the deal this week. Calacanis isn't confirming or denying the deal according to Paid Content.
The deal could be worth as much as $35 million but it's likely to be far less. Even so, that's a lot of money for anything weblog-related and perhaps is an encouraging stamp of approval of sorts for the medium. It is said AOL plans to keep the Weblogs, Inc. network of blogs separate from the rest of AOL properties at least for the time being. No doubt, more details will follow.
Comments
If this is true, its really surprising.. the company has grown substantially since it started just over two years ago.
With the whole restructuring of the AOL division by Time Warner, and other problems they've had, I wonder if its a good move on Jason's part. The restructuring liability cost Time Warner $965 million, and it included 1700 job cuts. He has put together a great team at WIN. I hope WIN doesn't become a casualty if it does indeed join AOL.
And I thought Nick Denton was smooth, having inked a European distribution deal with VNU.