List of acquisitions by AOL
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AOL's Silicon Valley branch office
AOL is an internet company founded in 1985 as Quantum Computing Services.[ 1] 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%.[ 2] 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 .[ 3] [ 4] 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.
Acquisitions
Acquisition date
Company
Business
Country
Value (USD )
References
May 1994
Redgate Communications
Internet service provider
USA
$35,000,000
[ 5]
November 1994
BookLink
Web browser
USA
$30,000,000
[ 6]
30 November 1994
NaviSoft
Web server
USA
—
[ 7]
February 1995
Advanced Network and Services
Non-Profit
USA
$35,000,000
[ 8]
May 1995
Medior
User interface design
USA
—
[ 9]
May 1995
WAIS Inc.
Search engine technology
USA
$15,000,000
[ 10]
1 June 1995
WebCrawler
Search engine
USA
—
[ 11]
22 September 1995
Ubique
Virtual places
ISR
$16,981,000
[ 12] [ 13]
1 February 1996
Johnson-Grace
Data compression
USA
—
[ 14]
6 August 1996
ImagiNation Network
Online game
USA
—
[ 15]
25 November 1996
Global Network Navigator
Web browser
USA
—
[ 16]
10 November 1997
CompuServe
Online service
USA
$175,000,000
[ 17]
26 January 1998
Personal Library Software
Search engine
USA
—
[ 18]
8 June 1998
Mirabilis
Instant messaging
ISR
$287,000,000
[ 19]
24 November 1998
Netscape
Web browser
USA
$4.2×10 ^ 9
[ 20]
5 April 1999
When.com
Web-based calendar
USA
$225,000,000
[ 21]
27 May 1999
Moviefone
Film database
USA
$525,000,000
[ 22]
1 June 1999
Nullsoft
Media player
USA
$80,000,000
[ 23]
1 June 1999
Spinner.com
Media player
USA
$320,000,000
[ 23]
October 1999
Gateway.net
Internet service provider
USA
$800,000,000
[ 24]
3 December 1999
Tegic
Predictive text
USA
—
[ 25]
22 December 1999
MapQuest
Web mapping
USA
$1.1×10 ^ 9
[ 26]
2 September 2000
Quack.com
Voiceportal
USA
$200,000,000
[ 27] [ 28]
5 September 2000
iAmaze
HTML editor
USA
—
[ 29]
19 May 2001
InfoInterActive
Telecommunications
CAN
$28,200,000
[ 30]
July 2001
eVoice
Telecommunications
USA
—
[ 31]
19 November 2003
Singingfish
Audio /Video search engine
USA
—
[ 32]
24 June 2004
Advertising.com
Online advertising
USA
$435,000,000
[ 33]
3 August 2004
MailBlocks
E-mail service provider
USA
—
[ 34]
3 August 2005
Xdrive
Online file storage
USA
—
[ 35]
7 August 2005
Wildseed
Mobile software
USA
—
[ 36]
5 October 2005
Weblogs, Inc.
Weblog network
USA
—
[ 37]
3 November 2005
MusicNow
Online music store
USA
—
[ 38]
10 January 2006
Truveo
Video search engine
USA
—
[ 39]
17 May 2006
Lightningcast
Internet marketing
USA
—
[ 40]
13 August 2006
Userplane
Social network service
USA
—
[ 41]
16 August 2006
GameDaily
Video game journalism
USA
—
[ 42]
8 November 2006
Relegence
Financial services
ISR
—
[ 43]
14 May 2007
Third Screen Media
Mobile advertising
USA
—
[ 44]
15 May 2007
Adtech
Advertising technology provider
DEU
—
[ 45]
23 July 2007
Tacoda
Advertising network
USA
$285,000,000
[ 46]
7 November 2007
Yedda
Social Search
ISR
—
[ 47]
7 November 2007
Quigo
Advertising network
USA
—
[ 48]
5 February 2008
buy.at
Affiliate network
USA
—
[ 49]
13 March 2008
Bebo
Social network service
UK
$850,000,000
[ 50]
28 March 2008
Emurse.com
Resume creation & Job hunting site
USA
—
[citation needed ]
14 April 2008
Sphere
Web search engine
USA
—
[ 51]
15 August 2008
Socialthing
Social Network Aggregator
USA
—
[ 52]
11 June 2009
Patch Media
Local search (Internet)
USA
—
[ 53]
11 June 2009
Going
Local search (Internet)
USA
—
[ 54]
15 July 2009
MMAFighting.com
MMA blog
USA
—
[ 55]
25 January 2010
StudioNow
Internet video
USA
$36,500,000
[ 56]
31 August 2010
Rally Up
mobile applications
USA
—
[ 57]
28 September 2010
5Min Media
video syndication
ISR
$65,000,000
[ 58]
28 September 2010
TechCrunch
Technology blog
USA
—
[ 59]
28 September 2010
Thing Labs
mobile applications
USA
—
[ 60]
1 December 2010
Unblab
email
USA
—
[ 61]
16 December 2010
Pictela
content marketing
USA
—
[ 62]
20 December 2010
About.me
social networking
USA
—
[ 63]
31 January 2011
GoViral
Online video distribution
DEN
$96,700,000
[ 64]
7 February 2011
The Huffington Post
news
USA
$315,000,000
[ 65]
4 March 2011
Outside.in
Local / News
USA
—
[ 66]
15 March 2012
Hipster
mobile applications
USA
—
[ 67]
4 December 2012
Buysight
Product Level Retargeting
USA
—
[ 68]
13 February 2013
gdgt
gadget reviews media outlet
USA
—
[ 69]
7 August 2013
Adap.tv
Video advertising
USA
$405,000,000
[ 70]
23 January 2014
Gravity
Native advertising
USA
$90,700,000
[ 71]
6 May 2014
Convertro
Attribution (marketing)
USA
$101,000,000
[ 72]
21 May 2014
Precision Demand
Attribution (marketing)
USA
$405,000,000
[ 73] [ 74]
1 December 2014
Vidible
Video management and exchange platform
USA
$50,000,000
[ 75]
March 2015
Velos
Predictive analytics
USA
—
[ 76]
23 October 2015
Millennial Media
Mobile advertising
USA
$238,000,000
[ 77]
August 2015
Ashe Avenue
Web Development Group
USA
—
[ 78]
31 August 2015
Kanvas Labs
mobile applications
USA
—
[ 79]
25 January 2016
AlephD
Publisher Analytics
France
—
[ 80]
20 April 2016
RYOT
Immersive Media Company and Virtual Content Studio
USA
—
[ 81]
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^ "America Online, Inc. Announces Acquisition of Wildseed, Ltd" . AOL . 2005-08-07. Archived from the original on 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2008-04-15 .
^ "Post This: America Online Acquires Weblogs, Inc" . AOL . 2005-10-05. Archived from the original on 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2008-04-15 .
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^ "AOL Acquires Third Screen Media" . AOL . 2007-05-14. Archived from the original on 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2008-04-15 .
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^ "AOL Acquires Questions and Answer Service Yedda, Inc" . AOL . 2007-12-07. Retrieved 2008-04-15 .
^ "AOL Enters Into Agreement To Acquire Quigo, A Leading Site and Content-Targeted Advertising Firm" . AOL . 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2008-04-15 .
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^ "AOL To Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo" . AOL . 2008-03-13. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2008-04-15 .
^ "AOL Acquires Sphere" . AOL . 2008-04-14. Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2008-04-15 .
^ "AOL to Acquire Socialthing!" . AOL . 2008-08-15. Archived from the original on 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2008-08-15 .
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External links