• Home
• About
  • Advertising
• Contact

-->

AOL Acquires Sphere

AOL, with eyes on the blogosphere’s advertising opportunities, has acquired blog widget Sphere for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2005, Sphere has made its way onto both small and large sites, serving up contextual news and blog posts.

After recently forming its own Technology Blog Network and continuing to reshape itself into an online advertising player, AOL’s operating chief Ron Grant explained the Sphere buy this way:

“This acquisition provides AOL with access to advertising inventory across Sphere’s network, while growing its reach to content publishers via the widget.”

On his blog, Sphere co-founder Tony Conrad said the acquisition came just at the right time.

“We are joining AOL at an opportune time. AOL is doing what great, sustainable business do every so often – they’re reinventing themselves. As the business model of the oldest and one of the biggest Internet businesses evolves, Sphere becomes an important piece of their strategy to reach across and engage the web.”

The key to Sphere’s success appears to have been its departure from an original mission as a blog search engine to a context engine able to serve up related news. After Time grabbed the widget, a number of top-rank news sites followed, including the Wall Street Journal.

Sphere will come under the domain of Bill Wilson, the executive vice president in charge of blogs, among other areas.

Although the acquisition price wasn’t announced, tech blogger Michael Arrington, citing unnamed sources Monday evening put the amount “in the $25 million range, or possibly a little more.”