News broke this morning with the 5min acquisition, then TechCrunch annouced its own purchase and now this. Does any of this stink of desperation? The company has spent years trying to buy its way out of the technological black hole it so clearly lives in. We’ve seen this pattern before, when AOL purchased Bebo for $850 million in 2008, trying to make its way into the social networking market, only to sell the company this summer for a reported $10 million.
Maybe this time will be different. One thing is clear — AOL is serious about revamping its strategy and is on a buying spree to help make that happen.
Thing Labs has some incredible talent that will be running AIM, AOL Lifestream and Brizzly. Brizzly will be integrated with the other applications over time.