A recent article at the Wall Street Journal speculates what AOL could do with the $300 million it’s raising in a convertible bond offering.
“The stated purpose is to put $50 million into share buybacks, and some into hedging transactions around the convertible offering,” writes the WSJ. “The rest is for ‘general corporate purposes,’ which could include acquisitions, the company said on Tuesday. That’s boilerplate, of course, for such an offering. But in AOL’s case, acquisitions seem logical. The company has made a string of acquisitions in recent years, both in content and ad tech, many financed with cash.”
The favorites, according to the WSJ: something in mobile, native, programmatic TV, search, ad targeting, fraud protection or something (else) in video. The WSJ calls content “the wild card.”