AOL is owned by Apollo (the United States, NYSE: APO), which acquired the brand on 1 September 2021 for $5 billion.[1][2] AOL was founded in 1985 in New York, New York and was independent until 2021.
AOL brought millions of Americans online through dial-up in the 1990s, mailing out free trial discs in enormous quantities. Its $165 billion merger with Time Warner in 2000 is widely regarded as the worst corporate deal ever made; Verizon bought what remained in 2015 for $4.4 billion.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Apollo ownership tree →
Funds managed by Apollo Global Management acquired ninety per cent of Verizon Media, comprising Yahoo and AOL and their properties, in a deal valued at about $5 billion. Verizon retained the remaining ten per cent.
No tagged news items yet. Deals, regulatory actions and recalls are added from SEC filings, regulators and trade press; only titles and links are stored.
Headlines link to the original publisher. Brandtree does not reproduce article text.
The parent company of AOL is Apollo, a private-equity firm headquartered in the United States.
Yes. AOL originated in the United States in 1985 and its owner, Apollo, is also headquartered in the United States.
Apollo completed its acquisition of AOL on 1 September 2021, after announcing the deal on 3 May 2021. The deal was valued at $5 billion (enterprise value).
AOL was an independent company from its founding in 1985 in New York, New York until Apollo acquired it in 2021.
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, AOL is still owned by Apollo. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
Report a correction Opens a pre-filled GitHub issue. See our corrections policy.