Since AOL acquired the Huffington Post, its stock price has been hammered, losing 50% of its market value. Yesterday after the company released earnings, owners of the stock gave up on the company. The firm lost more than 26% of its market price in a single trading day. The stock closed at $11.10 per share.
Part of the problem was in plunging advertising revenue. Huffington Post was supposed to breath life into the sagging internet company. But so far there have been no positive results, only losing numbers. Revenues for the quarter fell 8.4%.
As one analyst explained yesterday, “its overall revenues fell, to $542 million from $592 million in the same quarter a year ago — a performance that also came in below most Wall Street estimates.”
The marriage between HuffPo and AOL was regarded by many as a last desperate move by the former internet giant to revive its fortunes. But it does not appear that the partnership has helped the company with traffic and ad revenue.
At least one analyst believes that at a relatively cheap price, Time Warner should buy back the company and dump HuffPost. Noted analyst Peter Yard from Venture Beat “If you were betting on the future of news, would you pick Time or HuffPo? Time Warner is going to have to make a move here, and AOL just got a whole lot cheaper than Say Media or Glam.”
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