(FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 5/18/15)
Huffington Post's Position
In Verizon-AOL Deal
In Verizon's merger with AOL, could the Huffington Post wind up
being the odd man out?
The phone giant's proposed $4.4 billion acquisition is aimed
primarily at shoring up Verizon's capabilities in mobile video and
ad technology, areas where AOL has made a strong showing in recent
years.
Where does that leave AOL's content -- sites like Huffington
Post, TechCrunch and Engadget -- in the empire Verizon is putting
together? Some industry watchers say it may make sense for Verizon
to unload them.
"Verizon's interest in AOL is driven by their growth aspirations
in streaming and mobile video rather than in acquiring news
content," said Jim Friedlich, head of Empirical Media, a
consultancy that advises media companies on digital strategies.
"News assets like the Huffington Post or TechCrunch are noncore to
Verizon and worth more to other acquirers whose core business is
news."
Even before Verizon made its takeover bid, AOL Chief Executive
Tim Armstrong often received feelers about selling some or all of
its content operations, including Huffington Post, according to
another person familiar with AOL.
Huffington Post's spokeswoman said she was unaware of any deal
talks.
In AOL, Huffington Post is a big fish that gets plenty of
attention. Its roughly $200 million in revenue last year accounted
for about 8% of AOL's total haul. At Verizon, which is still
fundamentally in the business of selling smartphone users monthly
service, it will account for a little more than 1% of the business
and could wind up adrift.
Verizon says it considers Huffington Post one of AOL's "key
assets." Mr. Armstrong told employees at a meeting following the
deal announcement that AOL's content properties were a key reason
Verizon was interested in the acquisition in the first place.
-- Lukas I. Alpert and Keach Hagey
Snapchat Will Feature
Weekly Content From MLB
Snapchat, the mobile app that originally created only vanishing
messages, is working with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to
bring weekly baseball-related video content to its popular
mobile-messaging service.
Using its "Our Stories" feature, Snapchat will curate content
submitted by fans at baseball games around the country, package it,
and push it out to users across its platform. The resulting "MLB
Story" will be published every Wednesday or Thursday, representing
the first time Snapchat has committed to regularly scheduled
"programming" of this kind.
The goal is to capture the experience of attending a baseball
game, according to MLB Advanced Media's senior director of New
Media, Andrew Patterson. That could mean stitching together content
featuring action on the field with video depicting fans'
experiences in the stands. It may also include behind-the-scenes
footage submitted by MLB's own social-media correspondents who are
at every game.
No money is changing hands in the partnership.
-- Jack Marshall
Access Investor Kit for AOL, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US00184X1054
Access Investor Kit for Verizon Communications, Inc.
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http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US92343V1044
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