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Back to the Future: AOL Goes Local With Two Acquisitions (Including CEO's Company)

in News on June 11, 2009 at 9:29 am PT

Adding the final leg of its new strategy to reinvigorate AOL, the Time Warner online unit said it was buying two small local start-ups, Patch Media and Going. Each acquisition–which focus on hyperlocal community news (Patch) and events (Going)–is small, about $10 million. Ironically, local has previously been a big arena for AOL, which launched its Digital City unit with great fanfare more than a decade ago. AOL still runs Digital City, as well as its CityGuide listing offering. But, in a move that will surely be scrutinized, Patch is a company whose principal investor has been AOL’s new CEO Tim Armstrong. AOL declined to say how much he had invested in the company, but sources said it was less than $5 million.
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