• Haaretz.com, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 11:30 AM

Is AOL completely reinventing itself? Either way, the Web giant's ad network binge continues: according to the Israeli news service Haaretz, AOL is on the cusp of buying Israel-based Quigo for $300 million. The deal has not been confirmed, however. The addition of Quigo would be AOL's fourth ad network acquisition this year, after behavioral targeting firm Tacoda, mobile ad network Third Screen Media and the Europe-based network AdTech AG.

Quigo's two main advertising products are AdSonar, which provides targeted search and contextual listings similar to Google's AdSense, and FeedPoint, a search marketing and optimization tool.

This doesn't mean that AOL is about to drop Google AdWords for search; rather, AdSonar adds vertical search and contextual listings to AOL's growing arsenal of advertising services. Quigo already has an existing deal with AOL parent Time Warner, which gives the media giant a customized version of AdSonar comprised only of its 15 Web properties. According to PaidContent.org, Time executives estimate that the Quigo deal will bring in about $100 million over the next three years.

Read the whole story at Haaretz.com »