Patch Parent To Buy Huffington Post

The Los Angeles-based Huffington Post, one of the leading online news media websites, is being sold to AOL for $315 million, the two companies announced Sunday at the Super Bowl.

Co-founder Arianna Huffington will become president and editor-in-chief of a new Huffington Post Media Group division at AOL, Huffington announced on her blog and AOL announced in a news release. Included under her umbrella is Patch.com, which includes Newport Beach Patch.

AOL said it is buying the website operation with about $300 million in cash.

The buyout has yet to get government approval, but the boards of directors of both companies and shareholders of the Huffington Post have approved the deal, according to AOL.

The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter or the early part of the second quarter of this year, according to AOL.

Acquiring the Huffington Post will boost AOL's growing news operation, which also includes a network of 800 Patch.com local news websites, as it competes against Yahoo and Google, which are also increasing their news operations, along with older media companies, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Other AOL news websites will be under Huffington's control as well.

In her blog, Huffington said she and AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong signed the agreement at today's Super Bowl, which she attended for the first time.

"Far from changing our editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, this moment will be for HuffPost like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet,'' she said.

"We're still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we're now going to get there much, much faster.''

The Huffington Post website was founded in 2005 and has nearly 25 million unique monthly visitors, according to AOL.

—City News Service