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October 30, 2006
AOL Looks To Buy Eutubes
Now that AOL has shed its Internet access businesses in Europe, it is looking to buy popular video and IPTV "properties" in Europe to expand the reach of its online advertising business, according to an exclusive interview AOL's chief Jonathan Miller gave to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung last week.
Why? AOLs margins in the access business were at 20 percent, compared to the 50 to 70 percent margin he can get by adding well-trafficked web sites to its "reach".
Miller talked about AOL's missed chance to buy YouTube (the popular video clip sharing site in the US), "visibly" expressing his frustration at his parent company's refusal to support an acquisition, said the reporter.
Miller also said that traditional media is not going to disappear in light of the growth of web-based advertising and the domination of it by the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, but the "critical question" is "will they be able to make enough money with Interent advertising to keep their core business afloat.
His view is that it's an either-or question for media companies: move content to the net to develop a new channel, or create an entirely new business. He added, while most media companies have Internet activites, only a few are consequent about it, says Miller.
The last couple of sentences sound a bit 1999ish to - not that it matters - the point is AOL is looking to pay some serious money for new properties in Europe.
It will be interesting to see what it can snag. Europe's VCs only very recently invested in video clip web sites, such as DailyMotion and Metacafe. Maybe Sulake Labs's animated chat world HabboHotel is the right size - it's not video clips but its popular. But its price may be too high for AOL - we hear that its last financing round gave it a valuation above $300M.
AOL-Chef Jon Miller: „Wir planen Akquisitionen in Europa“ - FAZ.NET - Wirtschaft
Posted on October 30, 2006 04:00 AM | Posted to Web 2.0 | Permalink
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