AOL, Patch's Parent Company, Agrees to Buy Huffington Post

AOL, Patch Media's parent company, is taking another major step.

As you may have already heard, AOL announced the agreement to acquire The Huffington Post on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Huffington Post is one of the most influential and fastest-growing properties on the Internet. AOL believes in brands, quality journalism and the positive role of communities in the world (as seen through our work with Patch). The Huffington Post shares these values, and the combination of the two companies will create the premier global and local media company on the Internet.

Co-founded six years ago by Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer, The Huffington Post has grown to become an industry leader—one of the Web’s most popular and innovative sources of online news, commentary and information. Huffington and her team have created a brand and a destination that focuses on the consumer experience.  

By combining The Huffington Post with AOL’s network of sites, we will create a company that is laser-focused on serving our audiences across every platform imaginable—social, local, video, mobile and tablet. 

In the local area, the combination of the two companies will create a scaled connection between global and local communities on one platform. This will create a new way for people to get local and global information in a timely and entertaining way.

The Huffington Post will join the family of AOL Brands that are destinations for an influencer audience—brands like TechCrunch, Engadget, AutoBlog, Moviefone and of course, Patch.

To maximize the strategic advantage of this great deal, we will be creating a new group at AOL called The Huffington Post Media Group, with Huffington as president and editor-in-chief.

To see the official release about the acquisition, click here.