Verizon, which operates the country’s largest mobile network and also has massive television and internet service provider businesses, has just agreed to purchase AOL for $4.4 billion.
AOL is barely an internet service provider anymore (though it still has roughly 2 million dialup customers). Increasingly, the company is making its money as a video company, with original content and a whole video advertising platform and delivery service, which Verizon was quick to lay out in its press release announcing the acquisition.
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“We are excited to work with the team at Verizon to create the next generation of media through mobile and video,” AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said in a statement.
Along with its video services, however, AOL comes with its own major editorial operations in Engadget, TechCrunch, and The Huffington Post. Verizon hasn’t had the best track record when it’s run an editorial operation before: Last year, it launched SugarString, a tech blog that was supposed to compete with the Engadgets of the world, but quickly failed and was folded after Verizon forbade its editors from writing about net neutrality and other important telecom issues.
Verizon’s acquisition raises a whole series of questions both for AOL and for these news outlets, which I have sent to Verizon and the editors-in-chief at TechCrunch and Engadget. Update: A Verizon spokesperson has responded to my list of questions, his answer is at the bottom of this post.
- Will Engadget and TechCrunch be able to write about net neutrality?
- Will Huffington Post retain its editorial independence? Will it be allowed to cover telecom issues?
- Will Verizon have any say over the editorial staff at Huffington Post, Engadget, TechCrunch or any other editorial operations AOL has? Will the editors and writers there keep their jobs?
- Will Engadget and TechCrunch be asked to promote Verizon products and services?
- Will Engadget and TechCrunch be allowed to write about the telecom industry?
- Will Joystiq or anything else killed recently by AOL come back?
- Will TechCrunch Disrupt become Verizon Presents TechCrunch Disrupt?
- Will the Crunchies have a Dish/CNET-style scandal?
- Will AOL internet service persist under that name?
- Will Verizon and AOL’s ISP services remain entirely separate?
- Will AOL’s dial-up customers get any new services or broadband access?
- Will these new video services be offered only to Verizon Wireless customers? Will using these video services count against their data plans?
Update: A Verizon spokesperson has responded to my list of questions:
