AOL negotiated to buy tech news site gdgt

AOL is negotiating to acquire the tech news and review site gdgt, reports Colleen Taylor of TechCrunch.

Taylor writes, “Sources tell me that a deal appears to be nearing closure in a matter of days.

“I’ve reached out both to gdgt and to executives at AOL for confirmation or comment, but have not yet received a response. The latter is kind of awkward because they are technically my co-workers and/or superiors (disclosure: AOL owns TechCrunch,) but it is par for the course when it comes to M&A rumors. Also, it feels a bit strange to report on deals that are being worked on within my own (really big) company, but this is the word I’m hearing — and in the end, I’m told, news is news.

“Gdgt’s parent company PastFuture has raised some $3.7 million from investors including Spark Capital, True Ventures, betaworks, AOL Ventures, Lerer Ventures, and others. The company has a staff of about 20. This is not the first time the company has been in sale talks — the company has reportedly received interest from CBS, Amazon, and CNET over the years. That of course means that this deal may not pan out, but I’m told that the current talks are indeed very serious.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.