Verizon took a major step into the new media world today when it announced that it will be acquiring AOL for $4.4 billion in an all-cash deal. The pricing at $50 per share is about 17% higher than AOL’s current $42 share price, and will put big websites such as the Huffington Post and TechCrunch under Verizon’s control, not to mention AOL.com and the company’s programmatic advertising platform.

When people think of America Online, those old enough to remember CDs with 1000 free hours of internet connections in the 1990s can reminisce about dial up speeds and taking hours to download things that take seconds today. Things have changed for one of the pioneers of the world wide web and despite many turmoils, the company, now known as AOL, has finally found a buyer: Verizon.