AOL confirms acquisition of tech site gdgt

Alexia Tsotsis and Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch report that AOL has acquired tech news site gdgt for an undisclosed amount.

Tsotsis and Lunden write, “Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but we have heard that the deal was in the high seven figures, and that there was another — higher — offer from another company but that gdgt’s co-founders, Ryan Block and Peter Rojas, went with AOL because it was a better fit.

“It seems poetic that future of a company so deeply embedded in the Internet’s past would hinge upon amassing properties that so vehemently chronicle its future. The deal will see Ryan Block take on a bigger role at AOL, where we have heard from sources that he will become head of product for AOL Tech Media, reporting to Jay Kirsch, and taking some of the learnings, technology and sensibility that he and Rojas have brought to gdgt and applying it across AOL’s portfolio of tech sites. In addition to TechCrunch, those sites include Engadget (which Rojas founded and Block used to edit), TUAW and Joystiq. In other words, the acquisition will give gdgt much greater scale for its product.

“With AOL’s tech portfolio heavy on blogs and news, gdgt will be bringing complementary content in the form of a huge database of gadget information, created with the aim of ‘improving the buying experience,’ in the words of Block.

“The move lets the two come full-circle and, for those who ever wondered, provides more color on why they left in the first place. ‘We didn’t leave Engadget (or AOL) because we were unhappy, we left to do gdgt because at the time it was tough to build something that was clearly not editorial,’ Block told me. ‘That’s obviously changed, and we’re excited to be able to continue to invest in and grow gdgt, while also bringing a lot of the stuff we’ve built to the rest of AOL Tech.'”

Read more here.