SEPTEMBER 28, 2010, 5:32 P.M. ET.

3rd UPDATE: AOL Buys Influential Blog TechCrunch, 2 Tech Firms

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

AOL Inc. (AOL) on Tuesday said it would buy technology blog TechCrunch Inc., one of the most influential blogs in Silicon Valley, as the Internet giant looks to expand its offerings of critical content to its audience.

AOL also bought Thing Labs Inc., which makes Web-based social-networking software, and Web video-syndication company 5min Media on Tuesday.

The digital-media company said it expects to eventually include some of Thing Lab's Brizzly applications in its Lifestream social aggregator and publisher and its AIM messaging platform. Brizzly apps allow users to view and post updates to social-networking sites Twitter and Facebook and enable group chat. The founders of Thing Labs, who will join AOL, previously helped create Google Reader.

The companies didn't disclose the terms of the deals, but a person familiar with the matter said AOL paid about $30 million for TechCrunch.

The acquisitions show that AOL, spun off from media giant Time Warner Inc. (TWX), is doubling down on ad-supported Web media content, a business that has largely been a disappointment for the traditional media industry, which is shifting toward online subscription models as a way to generate revenue from digital businesses.

For its part, AOL has recently hired hundreds of writers to create more original news and local and entertainment content while it aggressively restructures its mix of assets during sharp declines in revenue and profits.

Founded in 2005, TechCrunch and its network of websites now reach more than 10 million unique visitors and draw more than 33 million page views per month. It operates a global network of dedicated properties from Europe to Japan, as well as specialized industry websites including MobileCrunch, CrunchGear and GreenTech.

Meanwhile, 5min is a video syndication network with a library of videos from more than 1,000 media companies and independent video producers. The deal is part of a push for AOL toward furthering its video offerings. The company in January bought StudioNow, a platform for online video creation and distribution, for about $36.5 million.

The 5min acquisition "provides a missing piece in the AOL value chain that completes our end-to-end video offering from content creation through syndication and distribution to the consumer experience and monetization," AOL Chairman and Chief Executive Tim Armstrong said.

Shares rose 0.5% to $24.27 in after-hours trading.

-By Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357; nat.worden@dowjones.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 15884.html