Private equity giant Apollo Global Management is reportedly weighing a sale of AOL after receiving unsolicited bids that could value the onetime internet pioneer at around $1.5 billion.
Talks are in the preliminary stages and may not yield a deal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Apollo has entertained feelers despite the fact that it has yet to launch a formal process soliciting bids, according to the Journal. AOL is property of Yahoo, which is a subsidiary of Apollo.
A $1.5 billion price tag is roughly four times AOL’s annual earnings, according to the Journal, which reported that the company generates about $400 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
While AOL is a shell of its former self, its core operations include privacy and security software along with the AOL.com portal and email platforms.
Meanwhile, Axios separately reported recently that Apollo was not actively shopping AOL but was drawn into discussions by suitors impressed with the unit’s cash generation.
“AOL’s story isn’t about dial-up nostalgia but about trust,” Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh, CEO of New York-based tech firm Lagrange Labs, told The Post.
Hishon-Rezaizadeh said that AOL “has reinvented itself and found success as a media brand in an age of growing misinformation.”
“This means verifying real content and detecting deepfakes, as well as safeguarding its other services like AOL Mail, identity protection and tech support from malicious actors,” he said.
AOL’s finances remain sturdy enough to attract bidders even as the company shutters a relic of its past: dial-up internet service, which will end on Sept. 30.
More than 160,000 Americans were still using dial-up internet service as recently as 2023.
Apollo acquired AOL, which was founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1985 before rebranding as America Online in 1991, when it purchased the media arm of AOL’s then-parent company, Verizon, for $5 billion in 2021.
America Online changed its name to simply AOL in 2006.
Verizon retained a 10% stake as the business rebranded to Yahoo under Apollo ownership.
Verizon bought AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion and scooped up Yahoo two years later for $4.8 billion — combining the two units into a division called Oath in a bid to build a digital advertising moneymaker that would challenge internet behemoth Google.
Oath was eventually rebranded as Verizon Media after the division failed to gain significant market share that was already taken up by Google and Facebook.
The phone giant later wrote down about half the combined unit’s value before opting to exit by selling to Apollo.
AOL’s cultural footprint looms larger than its current business lines.
The company’s “You’ve got mail” greeting became part of 1990s pop culture, and its ubiquitous trial CDs helped millions log on to the internet for the first time.
The brand was featured in the 1998 blockbuster film “You’ve Got Mail” — an indication of its mainstream reach at the height of the dial-up era.
An Apollo spokesperson declined to comment when reached by The Post on Tuesday.