AOL is an internet company founded in 1985 as Quantum Computing Services. Each acquisition is for the respective company in its entirety. The acquisition date listed is the date of the agreement between AOL and the subject of the acquisition. The value of each acquisition is listed in US dollars because AOL is headquartered in the United States. If the value of an acquisition is not listed, then it is undisclosed. As of August 2013, AOL's largest acquisition has been the purchase of Netscape, a web browser company, for US$4.2 billion.
Netscape's browser was dominant, in terms of market share, but it had lost most of its share to Internet Explorer during the first browser war. By the end of 2007, the usage share of Netscape's browsers had fallen from over 90% in the 1990s, to less than 1%. Its second-largest acquisition is the purchase of MapQuest, a web mapping company. From 1999 to 2009, MapQuest had the greatest market share among mapping websites; it has since dropped to second place, behind Google Maps. The majority of the companies acquired by AOL are based in the United States. As of April 2008, AOL has acquired 41 companies. Most of the acquired companies are related to the internet, including several internet service providers and web browsers.
In 2001, AOL merged with Time Warner to become AOL Time Warner. Due to the larger market capitalization of AOL, it gained ascendancy in the merger, with its executives largely displacing Time Warner's despite AOL's far smaller assets and revenues. AOL was spun off as its own independent company from Time Warner in 2009.
Verizon Communications acquired AOL in 2015, and operated it as a separate subsidiary. In 2017, Verizon bought the first Yahoo! Inc. and merged it with AOL, creating the second Yahoo! Inc. The company sold a 90% stake in Yahoo! to Apollo Global Management in 2021, and AOL was placed under Yahoo!’s umbrella.__TOC__
Acquisitions
Acquisition date Company Business Country Value (USD) Adjusted (USD) Redgate Communications Internet service provider $$ BookLink Web browser $$ NaviSoft Web server —— Advanced Network and Services Non-Profit $$ Medior User interface design —— WAIS Inc. Search engine technology $$ WebCrawler Search engine —— Ubique Virtual places $$ Johnson-Grace Data compression —— ImagiNation Network Online game —— Global Network Navigator Web browser —— CompuServe Online service $$ Personal Library Software Search engine —— Mirabilis Instant messaging $$ Netscape Web browser $4,200,000,000$ When.com Web-based calendar $$ Moviefone Film database $$ Nullsoft Media player $$ Spinner.com Media player $$ Gateway.net Internet service provider $$ Tegic Predictive text —— MapQuest Web mapping $1,100,000,000$ Quack.com Voiceportal $$ iAmaze HTML editor ——11 January 2001Time WarnerEntertainment$183,000,000,000$ InfoInterActive Telecommunications $$ Obongo E-Wallet —— eVoice Telecommunications —— Singingfish Audio/Video search engine —— Advertising.com Online advertising $$ MailBlocks E-mail service provider —— Xdrive Online file storage —— Wildseed Mobile software —— Weblogs, Inc. Weblog network —— MusicNow Online music store —— Truveo Video search engine —— Lightningcast Internet marketing —— Userplane Social network service —— GameDaily Video game journalism —— Relegence Financial services —— Third Screen Media Mobile advertising —— Adtech Advertising technology provider —— Tacoda Advertising network $$ Yedda Social Search —— Quigo Advertising network —— buy.at Affiliate network —— Bebo Social network service $$ Emurse.com Resume creation & Job hunting site —— Sphere Web search engine —— Socialthing Social Network Aggregator —— Patch Media Local search (Internet) —— Going Local search (Internet) —— MMAFighting.com MMA blog —— StudioNow Internet video $$ Rally Up mobile applications —— 5Min Media video syndication $$ TechCrunch Technology blog —— Thing Labs mobile applications —— Unblab email —— Pictela content marketing —— About.me social networking —— GoViral Online video distribution $$ The Huffington Post news $$ Outside.in Local / News —— Hipster mobile applications —— Buysight Product Level Retargeting —— gdgt gadget reviews media outlet —— Adap.tv Video advertising $$ Gravity Native advertising $$ Convertro Attribution (marketing) $$ Precision Demand Attribution (marketing) $$ Vidible Video management and exchange platform $$ Velos Predictive analytics —— Millennial Media Mobile advertising $$ Ashe Avenue Web Development Group —— Kanvas Labs mobile applications —— AlephD Publisher Analytics —— RYOT Immersive Media Company and Virtual Content Studio ——
References
External links of AOL