A leading global web services company with an extensive suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience, AOL has acquired websites 5min, Thing Labs and TechCrunch for in the last minute of its 3rd quarter. The acquisition amounted to $97 million, two-thirds of the total expenditure which is a stunning $64.7 million went to video site 5min. The price tag of the two other sites accumulated together is only $32.4 million.

“AOL is working hard to redefine the consumer experience on the internet,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “In Q3, AOL continued on the path towards better health through targeted acquisitions and smart dispositions, meaningful product improvements, site relaunches, and strategic partnerships, all of which will enable us to execute more quickly against our strategy.”

Moreover, AOL is expected to cashout $23.1 million over the next three years for three of its executives, which is not performance based but “contingent on their future service to AOL.”

AOL has made a number of changes in recent years, with a number of strategy implementations and top-level rotations that have left us all dizzy.  The determination of AOL to rebrand itself into a media-centric network is certainly a shift that strikes a chord with many.  Whether this is the right move for AOL remains to be seen.

What we have seen from AOL during one of its rebranding sessions was a surge in acquisitions.  AOL spent the better part of the last few years taking in software firms designing around content management systems.  This was an effort put towards the development of AOL’s ad network, which was installed as a support mechanism for the newly independent, non-subscription web portal.

image credit: Business Insider