KUSA - Verizon Communications Inc. has agreed to buy AOL Inc., parent company of Denver-based MapQuest, for $4.4 billion.
Verizon -- the nation's largest wireless carrier and a landline-phone operator as well -- is seeking Internet pioneer AOL to expand into digital video and advertising, and covets AOL's advances into digital-ad tech, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) plans to launch a mobile video service this summer. It already is streaming NFL programming via its subscribers' smartphones.
Verizon's cash bid for AOL (NYSE: AOL) values the company at $50 per share, a 17 percent premium over Monday's close of $42.59. AOL shared jumped Tuesday on word of the takeover deal.
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