With an eye on content, AOL Europe just bought online video distribution network GoViral for $96.7 million. As the
Guardian notes, "This is AOL's first major European acquisition since its disastrous 2008 deal to buy social networking
website Bebo for $850 million." Co-founded in 2005 by Danish Web and advertising execs Jimmy Maymann and Claus Moseholm, GoViral is currently based in London. "AOL Europe said that the deal will
strengthen its video offering and 'ultimately' North America," the Guardian notes. "We believe that GoViral ... allows us to match our ambition for premium content creation and engaging advertising,
with highly targeted distribution at scale," said AOL Europe SVP Kate Burns.
"Video is core to AOL's consumer programming strategy." GoViral currently has offices in the UK, Germany, France,
Denmark, Sweden and Spain, with further international expansion planned. As in the United States, the Guardian notes, AOL's UK operations have recently undergone restructuring and strategic refocusing
following the demerger from Time Warner. On both continents, AOL is focusing most of its energies on all manner of original content.
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