The Core

Why We Are Here => Traffic => Topic started by: bill on December 21, 2010, 02:01:59 AM

Title: AOL Acquires Personal Profile Startup About.Me
Post by: bill on December 21, 2010, 02:01:59 AM
Huh? This thing just got out of beta less than a week ago.

QuoteAOL Acquires Personal Profile Startup About.Me http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/20/aol-acquires-personal-profile-startup-about-me/

Personal profile startup About.me launched publicly, oh, all of four days ago. And, boom. Today AOL (our parent company), will announce that they've acquired the company. It will become part of the consumer applications group, led by AOL exec Brad Garlinghouse.

...

Frankly I'm a little surprised by the acquisition.

...

But frankly it's just too soon to take About.me off the market. Conrad has had multiple wins as an entrepreneur and is more than financially secure. and I'm surprised he didn't wait to see this one through a bit.

Is AOL purchasing this property a good thing
Title: Re: AOL Acquires Personal Profile Startup About.Me
Post by: Brad on December 21, 2010, 11:36:33 AM
>>Is AOL purchasing this property a good thing?

Probably not, if history is a judge.  These startups that get gobbled by the big portals: Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Google seem to languish and atrophy after being borged.   
Title: Re: AOL Acquires Personal Profile Startup About.Me
Post by: Drastic on December 22, 2010, 04:56:46 PM
>seem to languish and atrophy after being borged.   

Aren't they usually just after the tech/userbase anyway?
Title: Re: AOL Acquires Personal Profile Startup About.Me
Post by: JamesR on December 31, 2010, 07:47:32 PM
I would think it was a grab for the technology.  Without reading into the background, I am supposing this was custom made for a company like AOL.  Exit strategy in place from the beginning.