14 DAY TRIAL // Things move fast in the tech publishing world and a number of blogs have risen to constantly outmaneuver established publishers and brands. Among the blogs, the competition is even greater, but it seems to be worth it as the biggest have readers in the millions and the revenue to match. It looks like Mashable, one of the most popular social media blogs, is in AOL's cross hairs as the tech giant is looking to bolster its media lineup.
The rumor first surfaced on Gawker and seemed to be confirmed by a tweet by tech superstar and industry insider Robert Scoble who said: "My sources confirm that Mashable is being sold to AOL. Trying to get more details now." Not much else is known and other details haven't surfaced so far. In fact, it now looks like there are no talks about an outright acquisition but of some sort of ad deal.
"The latest on Mashable? Mashable staffers were denying that an acquisition was happening, but there is some sort of deal in play," is one of the latest tweets from Scoble. "I've been told that Mashable's ad network deal with Federated Media will end in a couple of months and that the talks with AOL are about tht," he adds.
Either way, any type of deal would make a lot of sense for AOL. The newly independent company is trying to reshape itself as a content company and has been investing heavily in content creation hiring a big number of editors and even coming up with algorithm-based approach to news editing. Its approach has been to cover niche markets and it managed to do so successfully with several of its proprieties, Engadget is just one example. Mashable with its 12 million readers and 2 million Twitter followers would certainly make a great addition to AOL's lineup. On the other hand, AOL operates a pretty powerful ad network and it's starting to look like the talks might be over an ad deal rather than an acquisition, especially since Mashable's current deal with Federated Media is about to expire.