Yahoo is in advanced conversations to sell AOL to the Italian technology company Bending Spoans for around 1.4 billion dollars, four reuters familiar with the matter said, while the firm backed by Apollo Global Management, leaves behind one of the most recognizable names of the early era of the Internet.
Milan’s headquarters -based application developer is in advanced negotiations to acquire the inherited media brand, sources said. However, they warned that a final agreement has not yet been signed and that the negotiations could fall apart.
The sources asked for anonymity to discuss confidential negotiations. Yahoo is owned by the private capital firm Apollo Global Management, which acquired a 90% participation in the Verizon company in 2021, in an agreement for 5 billion dollars.
Bending Spoons and Apollo declined to comment. Yahoo did not respond to the request for Reuters comments.
An agreement would mark a new chapter for which it was once a giant of the Internet era, known for its email service and the notification “You’ve Got Mail”. AOL was at the center of the greatest fusion in history at the time when combined with Time Warner in 2000, but the mega agreement resulted in regulatory research and amortizations.
Bending Spoons has emerged as one of the most outstanding technological firms in Europe, with a strategy of acquiring technological companies in difficulties and renewing them. In February 2024, the company completed a financing round that valued it at 2.5 billion dollars, making it a rare “unicorn” in the technological panorama of Italy. A unicorn is a private company with an assessment of 1 billion dollars or more.
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The agreement would add the vast Base of AOL users to the mobile applications portfolio of Bending Spoans. AOL generates income through advertising and its subscription services, which include protection against Lifelock Identity, Lastpass Password Management and malware protection McAfee Multi Access.
More recently, AOL web traffic has grown 20% year -on -year among users between 25 and 54 years, exceeding growth in the category of users over 55, said a source familiar with AOL performance.
The growth was promoted by the introduction of multiple new categories of content in AOL.com, including health, fitness, animals, science and technology, home and garden, light side, real, local crimes, among others, according to the source.
Bending Spoons, whose products have 300 million monthly users, has recently made several acquisitions, including the Wetransfer file exchange service. Last month, he agreed to take the Vimeo private video platform for 1.38 billion dollars, its highest acquisition to date.
The banker see the firm as a candidate for an initial public offer (IPO) in the USA. UU. Executive director Luca Ferrari, who co -founded Bending Spoans in 2013, told Reuters last year that there were no firm plans for an IPO, but that the firm was working to be ready for it and looking beyond Europe.
With Reuters information.
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