Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) Pursuing AOL, Inc. (AOL) For The Online Ad Business

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is believed to have held talks with AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) over a possible acquisition or partnership as the company continues to seek avenues of expanding its mobile and video offerings. Bloomberg’s, Alex Sherman, reports that Verizon has not only held talks with AOL, but a bunch of other tech companies as the company seeks to enhance its presence in the ad-tech space.

“Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is more interested in mobile video, in other words, being able to watch video on your phone and may be bundling in something like that. […] Programmatic advertising allows Verizon to potentially make some money off this video products,” said Mr. Sherman

Verizon is believed to be highly interested on AOL’s advertising technology that it believes could be of benefit in the buying and selling of ads online. AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) CEO, Tim Armstrong has made big investments in Programmatic advertising platform that Verizon is believed to be closely eying. A potential partnership with AOL will allow Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) to also gain on millions of AOL members that are already subscribed to the company.

Bloomberg’s, Paul Sweeney, notes that Armstrong has done a pretty well in turning around the fortunes of a company that was near collapse. A partnership with AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) will be a big win for Verizon, which has been trying to make a push for the online video space as it seeks to compete with other cable companies.

AOL is slowly making its mark in the advertising scene, seen by impressive gains in terms of earnings, something that has, on the other hand, not been experienced at Yahoo according to Sweeney. AOL is also running its famous dial-up service, internet service that looks set to be wound down in the coming months. A potential partnership may see Verizon continuing that service and converting the customers into its FiOS broadband service.

“Tim Armstrong has done a tremendous job here at this company just a few years ago AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) was left for dead. He has done a couple of things since then. He has monetized their patent portfolio for over a billion dollars, which no investors had that in their valuation,” said Mr. Sweeney.

Free Report: Warren Buffett and 12 Billionaires Are Crazy About These 7 Stocks
Let Warren Buffett, David Einhorn, George Soros, and David Tepper WORK FOR YOU. If you want to beat the low cost index funds by an average of 6 percentage points per year look no further than Warren Buffett’s stock picks. That’s the margin Buffett’s stock picks outperformed the market since 2008. In this free report, Insider Monkey’s market beating research team identified 7 stocks Warren Buffett and 12 other billionaires are crazy about. CLICK HERE NOW for all the details.