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AOL announced yesterday it has purchased Going Inc., a Boston-based startup that provides an online social network based around events and gathering places. AOL is also buying Patch Media Corp., the company announced simultaneously. New York-based Patch also aims to provide locally relevant content by aggregating news, business listings and user-generated content.
Financial terms were not disclosed in either deal. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the acquisitions are priced at less than $10 million each.
Going has received at least $10.5 million from a list of investors that includes Boston-area venture capital firms Highland Capital Partners and General Catalyst Partners, as well as Universal Music Investments Inc., the funding arm of Universal Music Group. Founded in 2006 by Geoffrey Menegay, Roy Rodenstein and Rebecca Xiong as HeyLetsGo Inc., the company changed its name in 2007 and replaced CEO Rodenstein with Evan Shumacher, formerly CEO of Boston-based wireless software developer EveryPoint Inc.
Before Going, Rodenstein was a business line manager for call center software at the search engine company iPhrase Systems Inc. Xiong had held positions at Akamai Technologies Inc. and DataPower Technology Inc., after closing her short-lived dot-com startup, called Yana, in 2000. Menegay had previously been lead engineer at California startups Evolution Robotics Inc. and Knowledge Adventure Inc.
AOL is on the cusp of a split from parent company Time Warner Inc. CEO Tim Armstrong, who took over AOL in April, has emphasized local content in a new strategy direction for the company.
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