AOL has acquired the Huffington Post in a cash, stock deal, mostly in cash.
As part of the deal, Huffington Post Co-founder Arianna Huffington (pictured here)–who was derided by some when she co-founded the left-leaning site in 2005 with investor and well-known communications exec Kenneth Lerer–will become president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group within AOL.
The deal was signed late this afternoon and the boards of directors of each company and shareholders of the privately-held Huffington Post have approved the transaction.
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Once culminated, it will put Huffington in charge of all of AOL content and other properties, including well known names such as Engadget, Moviefone, MapQuest and TechCrunch.
She said she plans to move to New York from Los Angeles, although will also maintain her longtime Brentwood home there.
And content for all these sites will be integrated deeply into the Huffington Post, giving it a huge new infusion of editorial material.
Former AOL CEO Steve Case weighed in on the deal:
AOL chairman and CEO "Tim Armstrong says 1 + 1 will equal 11.
Really? That wasn't my experience," Case tweeted. Case was at AOL when it was acquired by Time Warner in 2000 in a $164 billion deal that is widely seen as one of the biggest media blunders of the past decade.
Watch Huffington and AOL's Tim Armstrong talk about the deal, AFTER THE JUMP…
