AOL announced late on Sunday that it is purchasing Arianna Huffington’s The Huffington Post. The deal for the online news company will set AOL back some US$315 million, and will put Ms. Huffington in charge of the company’s growing online media collection.
AOL plans to group all of its online news content, which includes Engadget, TechCrunch, The Unofficial Apple Weblog and several other companies, under a new umbrella called Huffington Post Media Group.
AOL buys The Huffington Post
“The new group will have a combined base of 117 million unique visitors a month in the United States and 270 million around the world,” AOL and HuffPo said in a press statement. “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 thousands of writers, editors, reporters, and videographers around the globe.”
Ms. Huffington will be transitioning from co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post into president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. The majority of her writing staff will be coming along for the ride, too.
AOL is hoping the purchase will better position the company to compete in the online news market. The deal is expected to be completed at the end of the first quarter of 2011.