Apollo weighs sale of AOL that could value company at $1.5B: report | Latest Tech News
Private equity giant Apollo Global Management is reportedly weighing a sale of AOL after receiving unsolicited bids that could value the onetime web pioneer at around $1.5 billion.
Talks are in the preliminary phases and might not yield a deal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people acquainted with the matter.
Apollo has entertained feelers despite the fact that it has yet to launch a formal course of soliciting bids, according to the Journal. AOL is property of Yahoo, which is a subsidiary of Apollo.
Private equity giant Apollo Global Management is reportedly weighing a sale of AOL after receiving unsolicited bids. Getty Images
A $1.5 billion price tag is roughly 4 instances AOL’s annual earnings, according to the Journal, which reported that the company generates about $400 million before curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
While AOL is a shell of its former self, its core operations embrace privateness and security software program along with the AOL.com portal and e-mail platforms.
Meanwhile, Axios individually reported just lately that Apollo was not actively purchasing AOL but was drawn into discussions by suitors impressed with the unit’s money era.
“AOL’s story isn’t about dial-up nostalgia but about trust,” Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh, CEO of New York-based tech firm Lagrange Labs, told The Post.
AOL was once identified as America Online, the 90s-era web pioneer that launched thousands and thousands to the web. Getty Images
Hishon-Rezaizadeh said that AOL “has reinvented itself and found success as a media brand in an age of growing misinformation.”
“This means verifying real content and detecting deepfakes, as well as safeguarding its other services like AOL Mail, identity protection and tech support from malicious actors,” he said.
AOL’s funds stay sturdy enough to entice bidders even as the company shutters a relic of its past: dial-up web service, which is able to end on Sept. 30.
More than 160,000 Americans had been still utilizing dial-up web service as just lately as 2023.
Apollo acquired AOL, which was based as Quantum Computer Services in 1985 before rebranding as America Online in 1991, when it bought the media arm of AOL’s then-parent company, Verizon, for $5 billion in 2021.
America Online modified its title to merely AOL in 2006.
Verizon retained a 10% stake as the business rebranded to Yahoo under Apollo possession.
A $1.5 billion price tag is roughly 4 instances AOL’s annual earnings, according to the Journal, which reported that the company generates about $400 million in EBITDA. AP
Verizon purchased AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion and scooped up Yahoo two years later for $4.8 billion — combining the 2 items into a division called Oath in a bid to construct a digital promoting moneymaker that would problem web behemoth Google.
Oath was finally rebranded as Verizon Media after the division failed to gain vital market share that was already taken up by Google and Facebook.
The cellphone giant later wrote down about half the mixed unit’s value before opting to exit by promoting to Apollo.
AOL’s cultural footprint looms bigger than its current business strains.
The company’s “You’ve got mail” greeting grew to become half of Nineteen Nineties popular culture, and its ubiquitous trial CDs helped thousands and thousands log on to the web for the first time.
The model was featured in the 1998 blockbuster movie “You’ve Got Mail” — an indication of its mainstream attain at the peak of the dial-up period.
An Apollo spokesperson declined to remark when reached by The Post on Tuesday.
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