AOL

Can two once-great Internet behemoths come together harmoniously in an age of mergers, roll-ups, and distribution plays? The early returns suggests that Oath — the corporate marriage of AOL and Yahoo — has some work cut out for itself.

According to sources, layoffs are expected to take place across AOL and Yahoo that could number up to 1,000 jobs. That is less than 20% of the combined company, according to sources. This action is not unexpected, given that both companies have a lot of redundancies, including in human resources, finance, marketing and general administration.

Verizon Communications will create a new company called Oath after it completes its $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo and melds the troubled internet company with its AOL operations.

Two of Canada’s top media companies partner to launch automated TV audience buying in that country..

NEW YORK (AP) — Jim Kimsey, the co-founder of Web pioneer AOL, has died of cancer at age 76. He died Tuesday morning in his home in McLean, Virginia, said […]

The AOL On network syndicates 2.5 million videos from media companies and places them on 2,500 websites. But publishers, who like the idea of more revenue from wider distribution, say there’s little tracking of where exactly their content is placed.

In its first major acquisition since itself being acquired by telecommunications giant Verizon, AOL this morning announced a deal to buy mobile app advertising network Millennial Media for $1.75 per share, a 30% premium over Wednesday’s closing price for the publicly-traded firm’s common stock. The deal will add one of the largest suppliers of mobile app advertising impressions to AOL’s programmatic and direct selling infrastructure.

AOL has released a study called Finding the Needle in the Haystack, which looks at the value of programmatic advertising. It used WebSpike, a proprietary second screen tool, to examine over 2.6 billion television ad impressions and eight brands from 2013-2015. It found that the further an ad is into the commericial break, engagement drops dramatically.

Appealing to brands’ better streaming senses, AOL is rolling out five new linear premium video ad formats. The new formats are available to run across AOL On, which now houses north of a million videos from AOL’s owned-and-operated properties, including The Huffington Post, TechCrunch and AOL.com.

AOL, recently acquired by Verizon for $4.4 billion, appears to be wasting little time in continuing to build out its advertising business. Sources say the company has been in the process of buying mobile ad network Millennial Media for $300 million-$350 million.

While negotiating its Verizon deal, AOL has also reportedly been in advanced discussions with a number of parties to spin off its flagship Huffington Post content unit. The talks have been most serious with Axel Springer, the German media conglomerate, but a number of private equity firms have also expressed interest in the high-profile property.

The acquisition gives Verizon an entryway into the increasingly competitive online video space. AOL owns The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Engadget, MAKERS and AOL.com.

AOL, in a significant expansion of its licensed content, announced a deal with NBCUniversal for access to video — some of it exclusive — from the Peacock’s broadcast and cable TV networks. Starting this summer, video clips and segments from NBCU entertainment and news programming will be available to stream on AOL’s website and mobile apps, as well as on the 16 over-the-top platforms on which the AOL video is available.

AOL and Fox Sports have struck a multi-year video content deal that will see Fox’s game highlights and potentially co-produced original content around sporting events hosted online by AOL. AOL has been expanding its sports presence of late through a number of publisher partnerships.

Is Verizon seriously considering a bid for AOL? Not according to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, refuting a Bloomberg story. Despite McAdam’s claims to the contrary, some analysts believe that a VerIzon-AOL deal is indeed in the works.

Verizon has reached out to AOL about a possible acquisition or joint venture to expand its mobile video offerings, Alex Sherman and Scott Moritz report. There is no formal proposal as yet, but Verizon is chiefly interested in AOL’s programmatic advertising technology.

AOL said Wednesday that its library of premium content would be available on Google’s Android TV, the same day the search giant unveiled the first streaming-media player that would run the new platform.

Big Data just got much bigger at AOL. At its second annual “Programmatic Upfront” event in New York on Monday, AOL announced the launch of a data management platform (DMP) with multi-touch attribution. The DMP will be part of AOL’s “ONE” platform, the multichannel programmatic ad platform the company plans to launch in 2015.

AOL is pushing to become a dominant player in the emerging “programmatic TV” buying space, announcing yet another acquisition — advanced TV audience targeting platform PrecisionDemand — which will be integrated into its Adap.tv system.

Following the success of Netflix and a fresh push by Amazon in online video, the battle of the tech giants is now moving into television with Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL, among some of the latest players. These moves come as a growing number of consumers are turning away from traditional television to online services such as Netflix, and with those providers looking to draw viewers by offering new, and not just recycled programs.

AOL is moving forward on its first long-form original series, a step that places them in the realm of other digital companies-turned-multimedia producers like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. The media company will produce Connected, a drama that will be adapted from an international format for U.S. audiences, for its AOL On Network, the company’s premium video platform, and its partner sites. It’s expected to premiere in January.

Mondays With Marlo, a half-hour talk show hosted by Marlo Thomas, 76, the actress and activist, has steadily built an audience since its debut three years ago. On Monday, the series, which is broadcast on AOL, will feature its 100th guest, Chelsea Clinton.

AOL is pitching ad buyers on a slate of shows and an easier way to shift TV dollars its way.

Patch.com, a network of small-town news sites owned by AOL Inc., has emerged at the center of a tug of war over the Internet company’s future. The high cost of running the local news sites has fueled a campaign by dissident investor Starboard Value LP against AOL CEO Tim Armstrong’s strategy of investing heavily in online content.

At their first Digital Content NewFronts in New York, AOL, Hulu, Microsoft, Yahoo and YouTube tout their professional-grade content to advertisers the way major television networks do.

AOL promoted a slate of new programming at its digital content “newfront” aimed at luring TV buyers with takes on familiar concepts, such as crime-scene investigations and housewife angst, that have made fortunes for the networks in the last decade.

The Web giant issues bold guarantees regarding its online GRP’s as Nielsen and AOL push the new model to advertisers still casting about for a convincing measurement metric.

AOL’s Huffington Post Media Group is preparing to launch a live over-the-internet video channel modeled on the 24-hour cable news networks. The project hasn’t been announced yet, but Huffington and AOL chairman Tim Armstrong have been dropping hints about it in their public remarks.

Although he argues that Patch gets a bad rap in the media, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong says that his company is making a “valuable” investment with the local media project.

The AOL-owned network of more than 800 sites upped the ante last week by adding thousands of unpaid bloggers to its editorial engine. Patch President Warren Webster says he’s eyeing a near-future map of Patch communities with very few blank spaces in between. Claiming that early viewership metrics are exceeding expectations, Webster also says that mobile platforms will play a key role in Patch’s continued growth.

The new vision of AOL as a marketing partner for television programmers isn’t just bringing content to the Internet company’s array of entertainment destinations. Speaking at Variety‘s 2011 TV Summit, Kerry Trainor, SVP of entertainment for AOL, who heads all entertainment platforms, says key in inking television marketing partnerships is: “How do we build custom distribution systems.”

The acquisition announced early today puts a high-profile exclamation mark on a series of acquisitions and strategic moves engineered by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong in an effort to reshape a fallen Internet icon.