"Hail Mary" or "Hail Arianna"?

Ken Auletta at the New Yorker is saying that the AOL acquisition of the Huffington Post is Tim Armstrong's "Hail Mary" pass for AOL. Since yesterday's announcement AOL's stock has been failing towards its yearly lows of $19.52 now at $20.50 as I write this. I say this is a "Hail Arianna" pass that will be caught.

How can one person make the difference in the fortunes of a company? Think Steve Jobs of Apple, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Larry Page of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Arianna is now the president of the Huffington Post Media Group an AOL Company with a domestic audience of 117 million people.

I was an original investor in Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post back in March of 2005. Why? I wanted to see an effective progressive voice operating online. Back then Arianna was a consummate blogger who relentlessly and effectively articulated many of our frustrations with the Bush administration particularly its march into Iraq. Back then Arianna met Ken Lerer a genius strategist and teamed up with him to create the Post.

Ken helped built the infrastructure around Arianna turning the blogger she once was into an institution. Last year Arianna met Tim Armstrong the new CEO of AOL and now he teams up with her supplying the infrastructure that multiplies the reach of the Post fivefold.

Yes, I made a very nice return on my investment. I am using part of it to aggressively buy up AOL stock and while saying my Hail Ariannas.

 

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Comments

[danceswithdata]

03:08 PM on 02/09/2011

I just hope that Arianna didn't make a huge mistake. Only time will tell.

[LoraineAntrim]

08:18 AM on 02/09/2011

What's the real message behind the HuffPo and AOL deal? It's obvious that both HuffPo and AOL are winners in this acquisition, and yes, Arianna Huffington is a winner in this deal as are many stockholders and investors. But I think the real winners are the global readers who follow HuffPo. The acquisition speaks to a belief in an educated populace and a belief that an intelligent and informed citizenry is alive and well. We can all say "amen" to that and forget the Hail Mary! Loraine Antrim

[Dal LaMagna]

10:40 AM on 02/09/2011

Halsey I don't get your analysis my telling people people I'm buying AOL equals me telling people they should buy AOL and violates SEC rules in some way. I'd appreciate knowing exactly what SEC rule I violated. Regarding your mean observation that I'm "anxious to let people know how clever" I am. I also invested an equal amount of money back in 2005 on Air America for the same reason I invested in Arianna - I was looking for progressive messaging to counter conservative messaging on line and on radio. Air America when bankrupt. I spent a ton of money on other progressive causes including Executive Producing 5 Iraq War documentaries and one on Sudan. Plus I've funded numerous start ups in the areas of health care, green building, and clean energy. I've also funded a school BGI that awards MBA's in Sustainable Business. Why don't you focus your critical eye on the multi millionaires who hoard their money rather than deploying it to create businesses that produce a product or service and jobs.