Verizon Completes $4.4B Acquisition Of AOL

It’s not often you hear about a shotgun wedding between two tech companies, but that’s apparently what happened for Verizon and AOL, as the recently betrothed said today that they had officially completed a $4.4 billion acquisition proposed just a month ago.

Verizon announced it has concluded its acquisition of AOL early Tuesday after purchasing all outstanding shares of the media company for $50 per share.

The deal, which officially makes the once-iconic dial-up Internet business a subsidiary of Verizon, expands the nation’s largest mobile phone operator’s portfolio to include AOL’s collection of media and technology companies including The Huffington Post and TechCrunch.

As Consumerist reported shortly after the news of the deal broke in May, Verizon executives specifically said that purchasing AOL, and all its advertising and user targeting software, “supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience.”

While that strategy could be good for consumers, it also stands to put their privacy at risk.

For Verizon the deal also represents a larger presence in the arena of video offerings. Though the company already distributes mobile video through its mobile phone network, the array of platforms owned by AOL will give the company an opportunity to provide content through the internet.

The purchase of AOL will allow Verizon to tap into the former company’s software used to buy ads across the web and to connect user identity across mobile and desktop platforms.

Verizon and other mobile phone companies have struggled in the past to identify users as they move between products, in part because of the poor performance of cookies on mobile devices.

In announcing the completion of the acquisition, Verizon reiterated that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong would stay on at the company.

Verizon Completes Acquisition of AOL [Verizon]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist