New York — AOL’s once-aspiring Platform-A network has been going through a lot of changes lately after splitting with sugar daddy Time Warner. The company, like Yahoo, taking stock of its less profitable assets has announced the sale of “Buy.at,” the affiliate marketing firm it acquired two years ago, to London-based Digital Window for an undisclosed sum.
The buyer, London-based affiliate merchant Digital Window, which owns subsidiaries including Affiliate Window, one of the UK’s biggest affiliate networks, said it plans to incorporate the buy.at network with its existing affiliate business, AffiliateWindow, price comparison site ShopWindow and content customizer ContentWindow for customers in the UK, USA and Scandinavia.
The news came as a surprise because it was made by Digital Window and not by AOL.
AOL formed Platform-A in 2008 — during an 18-month advertising acquisition splurge including Tacoda, Quigo, Buy.at, Advertising.com, AdTech and Third Screen Media — to deliver full-service online ad services to its own properties and third parties. Unfortunately, the unit’s leadership has changed plenty after new CEO Tim Armstong’s AOL-wide review, renaming it AOL Advertising.
Back in 2008, AOL paid a reported price of $150 million for Buy.at. According to AOL, Buy.at has been highly flourishing in the marketing services arena, and according to Reuters, the company posted annual sales at 40 million euros, and would be better off being owned by a group in that space.
The changes are more than just ornamental — now Armstrong’s AOL, through the former Mediaglow division (now AOL Media) is placing importance on being a niche web content publisher and, some might say, minimizing its ad proposition.
An email statement from the company today read, “AOL is concentrating on building the world’s best products and services, including great content and brand advertising platforms. Since July of last year, AOL has been focused on executing its strategic initiatives. As part of that execution plan, we are reviewing the list of AOL assets as they relate to the core strategy.”
The company said it is assessing its assets with regards to how they relate to the company’s new core strategy.
“We remain committed to our employees and delivering the best products for our users, advertisers and partners. [Social network] Bebo and Truveo are still part of the AOL family.”
According to a release, Digital Window — the majority of which is owned by German media group Axel Springer and Swiss communications group Publigroupe — and Buy.At will form the UK’s largest performance marketing group.
Around 18 staff from AOL’s Buy.at London-based office will move to Digital Window’s office in London’s E1 from tomorrow, with a big field to run around in and plenty of birds to chase, while 42 staff members from Buy.at’s Newcastle office will stay in place. A number of staff have also taken voluntary redundancy under the agreement.
“Buy.at is a company that has been flourishing in the marketing services space and will benefit from being owned by a group that is operating in the marketing services industry. Our goal going into this process was to find a viable option for the Buy.at business and employees to thrive and we believe the partnership offered by Axel Springer AG and PubliGroupe clearly meets that goal,” the AOL statement read.
Buy.at currently serves clients in the U.K., the U.S., and across Scandanavia. It opened a U.S. office off Wall Street in late 2007 as it pursued business in the U.S. market; that office remains there today.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed.