[potatosareok2]

Where do you get $10m a year? Quarterly earnings report have much higher numbers...http://ir.aol.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=147895&p=quarterlyearnings

Beyond that I think Verizon bought AOL 1) for a company with some experience with digital advertising, which is where I think Verizon sees a lot of its growth potential. There's only so many mobile phone subscribers in the US and landline business isn't really growing too much. See its accquistion of the TV company from Intel (they spent $1 billion for a NFL contract to stream games on mobile for 4 years). 2) it's still profitable and $4 billion really isn't very much for Verizon (Verizon itself was the $130B buyout of the Vodafone share by Verizon communications)

[cosmie]

Thanks for catching that. You're correct that overall revenue is much higher, but the cost of traffic acquisition eats into that significantly.

It's actually Adjusted OIBDA that's $10mm for the Brands group, which is arguably a more accurate figure to reflect the value of the division. Check out the table on page two of the 2015 earnings report at your link for the full breakdown.