AOL will acquire news site The Huffington Post, which now counts nearly 25 million unique monthly visitors. AOL will buy the site for USD 315 million, including USD 300 million in cash. The Huffington Post is currently owned by its two cofounders, as well as a group of investors. The transaction, subject to the usual closing conditions, has been approved by the boards of directors of each company and should close late in Q1 or in early Q2. The transaction will create a premier global, national, local, and hyper-local content group leveraged across online, mobile, tablet, and video platforms. The new group will have a combined base of 117 million unique visitors per month in the US and 270 million around the world. Following the close of this transaction, AOL will accelerate its strategy to deliver a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, and entertainment produced by writers, editors, reporters, and videographers around the globe. As part of the transaction, Huffington Post founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington will be named president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will integrate all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, and StyleList.
