The ink has barely dried on AOL’s $850 million proposed purchase of Bebo, but reports of another deal are already percolating. AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher reports AOL is seriously considering buying New York-based widget-maker KickApps for $90 million.
KickApps makes widgets to order for a broad range of companies, such as a car search widget for Autobytel and a social community for Time Warner’s CW TV network’s “Gossip Girl,” Swisher says.
Investors Softbank Capital, Prism VentureWorks and Spark Capital and others have dropped $17 million into KickApps.
The bigger question is whether parent company Time Warner is prettying up AOL for a sale or taking another go at finding its place in a world defined by Google and other bigger rivals. At this point, we’re thinking probably both as Time Warner mulls its options.
AOL wasn’t immediately reachable. KickApps declined comment.
Update: A source familiar with AOL’s plans tells us a deal is “very unlikely.”
Keep an eye on:
- Clear channel outlines its concession wishes for merger partners XM and Sirius satellite radio. (Orbitcast)
- Bebo’s Joanna Shields speaks: competitive bids, why AOL, dodges on Yahoo ad deal question. (paidContent)
- San Diego-based Sony Online Entertainment will now be overseen by Kazuo Hirai, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, in a move that probably should’ve happened five years ago. (GigaOm)
(Photo: KickApps.com)
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