Who uses Comic Sans
for a logo, anyway?
In a deal valuing the former internet subscription company at less than $5.66 billion, Time Warner bought back Google's 5% stake in AOL.
The planned $283 million purchase includes share of cash distributions Google received from AOL during its investment. It was finalized on July 8.
Google bought the stake in 2005 for $1 billion, valuing AOL at $20 billion at the time. $726 million of the investment was written down last year.
Time Warner now owns 100% of AOL's stock. In April, it announced plans to spin AOL off as a separate, publicly traded company. The company will follow through later this year.
Following yesterday's news of the exchange, shares of Time Warner rose two cents, or $27.60 a share. Google slipped $1.92 to $444.80 a share.
AOL acquired Time Warner in 2000 in an all-stock deal valued at $160 billion. At the time, this represented the largest merger/acquisition in US history.
Last week AOL announced plans to give Platform-A — the blanket ad unit that encompasses its premium ad sales, ad network Advertising.com and ad-server ADTECH — a fresh moniker. Come September, the umbrella will be known as AOL Advertising.
