According to TechCrunch, AOL is looking to add another tech-centric property to the family. The word on the web is that AOL is making a play for gadget review site gdgt, founded by Engadget co-founder Peter Rojas and former Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block.
The report says that the internet and media company is in the final stages of inking the deal, according to people familiar with the matter. So far neither gdgt or AOL has commented on the rumours, which is interesting as they come from an AOL-owned site.
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According to TechCrunch, “Gdgt’s parent company PastFuture has raised some US$3.7-million from investors including Spark Capital, True Ventures, betaworks, AOL Ventures, Lerer Ventures, and others.” Essentially AOL would be buying out other shareholders.
This is apparently not the first time that the company has been in sales talk, having reportedly been courted by CBS, Amazon and CNET in the past.
According to the report:
AOL buying gdgt would bring some of the most influential people from the past decade or so of gadget blogging back under its roof. Block and Rojas left Engadget and AOL back in 2008 to begin working on what became gdgt, and their departures ended up being just the start of what became known as an “Engadget exodus” that many saw as damaging to the site (and a sign that AOL couldn’t keep its tech writers around, something that’s turned out to be a recurring theme of sorts.) But now, AOL seems to be trying to reverse that reputation.
Under the leadership of Tim Armstrong, AOL has been managed to net itself some nice online real estate. In 2010, the company acquired TechCrunch and about.me, a personal profile/identity platform, four days after public launch. Its biggest purchase to date is the acquisition of The Huffington Post for US$315-million, which led to naming of co-founder Arianna Huffington as AOL Content Chief, replacing David Eun.
