AOL, fresh off its $850 million purchase of social network Bebo, is now eyeing KickApps, a white-label social software company, reports Kara Swisher. Her sources peg the deal price at around $90 million. The deal hasn’t been inked just yet. KickApps, based in New York, has raised $17 million from Softbank Capital, Prism VentureWorks and Spark Capital. I contacted one of their investors but he wouldn’t comment on the rumor.
Update: As an aside, KickApps CEO Alex Blum is an ex-AOLer. I checked with my sources and it seems like AOL isn’t the only candidate looking at KickApps and the $90 million number isn’t even close to what company wants. Given that they have raised $17 million, KickApps must have a valuation of $40-50 million, and their investors must be looking for at least 3x return on their money.
When I asked AOL COO Ron Grant if AOL was going to be doing any more deals soon, he declined to comment but said the company will be “aggressive.” I have heard from multiple sources that AOL is kicking the tires at many Silicon Valley startups. From the looks of it, Time Warner is ready to spend to do a complete makeover of AOL. Call it dressing up before a spinoff, regardless of what happens with Yahoo.
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9:20 AM PT
[...] AOL is looking at acquiring KickApps, Kara Swisher of BoomTown reported this morning. Om, looking into the matter at GigaOM, found that there are other bidders involved, and that the company is trying to get a $120 to $150 [...]
5:04 AM PT
[...] last night that AOL (NYSE: TWX) is close to buying the white-label social networking service (more here and here). Turns out it is not as involved as reported: AOL has certainly expressed interest, but [...]
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9:22 AM PT
I would not be surprised if white label social networking sites like kickapps, ning, and rsitez are the next wave of buyouts.