AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced this morning that AOL has acquired Techcrunch. Terms were not disclosed. Mike Arrington and all the TC team will stay. Techcrunch will maintain complete editorial freedom. The deal was signed on stage at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference. Techmeme has numerous stories on the deal.
Mike Arrington built Techcrunch into the leading Tech news site in the world in just 5 years. Mike works harder than anyone I know. The man doesn't sleep. People either love or hate Mike Arrington. I love him. He has always been very helpful to me, and he is largely responsible for me going to work at Google after Microsoft. He will always be a friend.
Tim Armstrong first talked to Mike Arrington about acquiring Techcrunch at the TC Disrupt conference in New York in May of this year. Rumors are that the deal fell apart over price, some say around $30M. Presumably, the deal price now exceeds $30M. Techcrunch is a pretty profitable business. Reliable sources say revenues were $6M last year netting around $1.5M. Estimates for 2010 are around $10M in revenue and around $4 in profit.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but will probably dribble out over time. You can be sure Mike Arrington never has to work again...but he will continue working 18 hours a day anyway. That is just the way he is. Mike will stay on with AOL at least 3 years based on stock options and incentives in the deal.
Congratulations to Mike and the Techcrunch team.
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