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Who Should AOL Acquire Next?
With AOL’s acquisition of Bebo yesterday, and now discussion of a possible KickApps acquisition by AOL, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some other content candidates for AOL acquisition. If AOL is going to get serious about stepping back into the major leagues, they need more top notch content sites. All of these acquisition ideas would work well with Userplane, AIM, ICQ and Bebo, all AOL-owned companies.
CafeMom
This NY-based startup is targeted at moms and would be an excellent complement for AOL’s branded Web sites. CafeMom is currently serving 100 million pageviews and an average of 200 pages per user per month. This would make a great place for Platform-A and could be an extension for the Bebo "engagement marketing" platform. (our coverage)
Dogster/Catster
A niche social network for barking and meowing, Dogster and Catster could fit into the AOL branded sites as well. An acquisition of Dogster and Catster by AOL would give both sites new distribution opportunities along with a new advertising partner. (our coverage)
TripAdvisor
I am guessing that a decent percentage of TripAdvisor users are already AOL customers, either as dial-up, broadband or Web site visitors. TripAdvisor is currently owned by Expedia but I think the match would be better with AOL — could replace the AOL Travel site. The TripAdvisor network serves pages to 60 million unique visitors a month and includes 8 web sites including my favorite, SeatGuru. (our coverage)
SimplyHired
It seems in the time since I started CN there’s been chatter here and there about SimplyHired being acquired by someone. It’s a better acquisition target than going after a job site as SimplyHired would give AOL the best of both worlds: all the job listings from the major job boards plus the ability to enhance listings to generate even more revenue. The publisher job board option would give AOL a potential "in" to publishers to push Platform A and other potential partnerships. (our coverage)
Which services do you think would be a good fit for AOL?
Editor’s note: KickApps is a sponsor on our sister site, HTMLCenter.
I think those guys gain a lot of traction these days.
Centernetworks! If they offered Bebo $850M, I think an offer in the $60M to $70M range seems fair for Centernetworks. =)
Don’t sell though. We don’t want to see the quality of the content take a huge hit.
well http://justaddme.com of course, seems they are getting into their widgets….
On a more serious note, how about going after the ziff davis online properties like dl.tv and granky geeks and 1up to name but a few.
or
zoomr
or
gawker
*blush* – I wouldn’t accept less than $250 trillion in $1′s :)
easy, CN. hands down.
You want a sticker? YOU CAN’T HANDLE A STICKER!
email me your snail mail addy plz
(and where is my CN sticker?)
Ok heck; They can buy me blog only $10M and I would be happy :)
SimplyHired? Being that they are already part-owned by MySpace, and get most of their traffic from that source, I’d think IAC is a better match to buy them.
Additionally, all of AOL’s acquisitions have been targeted at adding to their ad network(s) and thus SimplyHired, which doesn’t even lead in it’s industry, doesn’t really add much reach.