--- description: Verizon Communications announced Tuesday a $4.4 billion deal to acquire AOL. title: 3 Charts That Show Why Verizon Wants AOL image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc902d5db193c0313/6987ef620b72e306ca6e2000/aol-logo.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [deals](/tag/deals/) ## deals Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 3 Charts That Show Why Verizon Wants AOL  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2015 7:27 PM CUT  The Aol Inc. logo is displayed on laptop computers arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Nov. 4, 2013\. Aol Inc. is expected to release earnings data on Nov. 5\. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images The Aol Inc. logo is displayed on laptop computers arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Nov. 4, 2013\. Aol Inc. is expected to release earnings data on Nov. 5\. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesGetty Images  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2015 7:27 PM CUT Verizon [announced](http://time.com/3855189/verizon-aol-merger/ "undefined") Tuesday a $4.4 billion deal to acquire AOL, the former dial-up service turned media company home to news sites like _The Huffington Post_ and _TechCrunch_. Why does Verizon want AOL? Some [observers have pointed](http://fortune.com/2015/05/12/aol-verizon-advertising/ "undefined") to Verizon’s interest in its thriving advertising technology business, built over the past few years through various acquisitions. The unit lets other companies pay AOL to buy and sell targeted ads across the web algorithmically. It’s one of AOL’s fastest-growing units, and Verizon could use the technology behind it to make more money from videos streaming across its network: AOL’s display and search advertising on its own sites isn’t growing as quickly compared to its ad tech business. But it has long been the backbone of AOL’s strong advertising revenue. In 2014, the company earned nearly $1 billion from these display and search ads: Still, [it’s not clear](http://recode.net/2015/05/12/aol-in-talks-to-spin-off-huffpost-as-part-of-acquisition-deal/ "undefined") if Verizon wants to keep AOL’s news sites, although the company has [flirted awkwardly](http://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-sugarstring-tech-blog-cole-stryker-net-neutrality-government-surveillance-2015-5 "undefined") with its own content sites in the past. Meanwhile, the unit that generates most of AOL’s income is probably the one that interests Verizon the least: Internet subscribers. While the number of AOL dial-up subscribers out there has slowly and steadily declined over the years, the company [still counts about 2.2 million of them](http://time.com/3855324/verizon-aol-dial-up/ "undefined"). The AOL unit that includes those subscribers generated over $600 million in revenue last year; their fate in a post-merger AOL is unclear: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3855904/verizon-aol/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3855904/verizon-aol/"},"headline":"3 Charts That Show Why Verizon Wants AOL","datePublished":"2015-05-12T19:27:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:05:12.446Z","description":"Why Verizon says the former dial-up company is worth $4.4 billion","url":"https://time.com/3855904/verizon-aol/","keywords":["deals","Tech","Verizon","AOL"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc902d5db193c0313/6987ef620b72e306ca6e2000/aol-logo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc902d5db193c0313/6987ef620b72e306ca6e2000/aol-logo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"aol-logo","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/deals/","name":"deals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3855904/verizon-aol/","name":"3 Charts That Show Why Verizon Wants AOL"}}]}] ```