AOL Scores Internet Advertising Deal with Verizon

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

6:10 am on April 15, 2008 | Category: Business, Web Services, Internet

Time Warner Inc.’s AOL division has landed one of its biggest advertising deals in recent years, gaining exclusive rights to manage telecom and broadband giant, Verizon’s, online advertising inventory.

The deal with Verizon is viewed as a coup for AOL’s Platform-A advertising division, as it jostles with rivals like Microsoft and Yahoo for control of the display advertisement business.

The timing of the announcement is ironic, however, given that Verizon Communications sued AOL’s parent company, Time Warner, last week alleging that it falsely advertised its cable television services. (Verizon competes with Time Warner in the subscription TV market.)

AOL’s deal with Verizon, the value of which has not been disclosed, will give Platform-A the right to manage and sell 100% of Verizon’s advertising space on the internet, and the majority of Verizon’s wireless web ad inventory.

“We’re all about working with Web sites to serve whatever needs they have,” commented the president of AOL’s Platform-A division, Lynda Clarizio.