It has been five days since I first introduced about.me, five days since they announced their public release, and within these five days they have attracted enough attention to be completely bought out by web giant AOL. The rapid turnaround in ownership is even impressive for Silicon Valley, where web startups seem to be tossed around like pogs on the playground.
AOL has been making huge moves this year, swallowing up startups left and right. Trying to stay competitive with younger companies who seem to be weeding out those who fight off innovation and forward progress. I commend AOL’s purchases, as an old weathered pioneer of the industry AOL needs to keep pumping life into it’s brand in order to stay afloat in the competitive space. About.me joins a great lineup of acquisitions this year that include TechCrunch, StudioNow, 5min Media, Thing Lab and Pictela.
The question now becomes, how much did AOL pay for the company that they hope well lead them through the aggressive Social Media front? While no announcements have been made publicly, lets just say that AOL made founders Tony Conrad, Timothy Young and Ryan Freitas an offer that they couldn’t refuse.
Conrad discussed the sale with Business Insider, and while he would not comment on the sale price he did outline the parameters of the decision. Basically Conrad states that since they only had to raise around $425,000 in funding, selling now offered a profitable and guaranteed payoff: “Given how little capital we raised and the acquisition price, our entire team does very, very well in this outcome.”
