Our New Address: AOL.COM
April 15, 2008 · Print This Article
Unlike the rumor that Sphere has reserved the Wrigley Field bleachers for Game 7 of the 2008 World Series, the conjecture about Sphere being acquired by a larger platform is officially true. AOL has acquired sphere. More information is here, here and here again for the curious detail seeker.
Where to begin, there is so much to say but we’ll try to be informative, yet brief for today’s ‘get it now, read it fast’ Internet reader. We are very excited about becoming part of AOL and wanted to share with you what it will mean for Sphere and our publisher partners, including “mainstream” media, micro-publishers and blog sites.
Sphere has always been a publisher/ blogger -centric company, even in our early days as a fledgling blog search engine. We founded Sphere with a mission to make contextually relevant connections between all forms of content (mainstream media articles, archived articles, videos, blogs, photos, ads) that enable the reader to go deep on topics of interest. We also, by virtue of our starting point, set out to be a vehicle to enable the individual voice to join the conversation as well as expose their voice to a broader audience of readers. The benefit of joining the ‘sphere is straightforward: publishers/ bloggers who successfully promote distribution of their content and that of others will be in a position to derive more value (aka….make more money, gain more influence, etc.) from media distribution.
Back when we released the Sphere Related Content Widget in 2006, the response told us we’d tapped into a new phenomenon of openness. A bit of a perfect storm as the launch of our service coincided with Publishers starting to embrace the virtues of linking to content outside their site as well as exploring ways to connect to the broader conversation happening in the blogosphere. While many savvy publishers have embraced these concepts, the fact is that there is an immense amount of work still to do in order to a) provide our customers with the best related content technology and approach; b) provide a more comprehensive set of “self service” tools that enable all partners, small, medium and larger to quickly launch our service; and c) enable publishers to most efficiently determine the best ways to distribute and monetize their content.
Our business approach will also remain unchanged – start-up-style, with the same hunger and spirit Sphere was founded on. We are joining AOL at an opportune time. AOL is doing what great, sustainable business do every so often – they’re reinventing themselves. As the business model of the oldest and one of the biggest Internet businesses evolves, Sphere becomes an important piece of their strategy to reach across and engage the web. In the past year, we’ve watched AOL as a partner, move aggressively to build their audience (new services, new web-site that interacts with users, acquisitions in the community space) and their Platform-A advertising business, and they’re making great progress on both fronts. They’ve seen steady growth as a result of the extensive programming and product upgrades they’ve made in the past year. Platform-A, meanwhile, reaches 90% of the domestic online audience and has some of the most sophisticated targeting and measurement tools on the market, positioning them very well in the growing online display ad market. We think it’s a huge advantage to become part of a suite of services that understands how Internet users access/ consume content, and how to intelligently monetize in tandem with that content. This is a win-win for our partners, AOL and Sphere.
We want to acknowledge our team who has made Sphere a success: Co-Founders Martin Remy and Steve Nieker who made it all possible with their vision and amazing abilities; Mike Garfias, Alex Bendig, Andy Cabell, Anne Dorman and Jeff Yolen who joined us early on when we had an idea and two nickels; Adam Embick, Josh Guttman, Kevin Cowan, Sven Henderson, Troy Vitullo and Michael Harzheim who’ve jumped in and have helped us accelerate our growth seamlessly — you rock! If you have a chance to pass them a note, please do.
We humbly thank everyone involved: our awesome team; advisors (Josh Macht; Toni Schneider; Matt Mullenweg; Mike Monteiro; Ron McCoy; Mary Hodder; and Scott Kurnit); investors, many of which wear halo’s (True Ventures; Trident Capital; Radar Partners; Hearst Interactive; Blacksmith; Phil Black; Will Hearst; David Mahoney; Mike Winton; Scott Kurnit; Vince Vannelli; Adaptive Path); our board (Venetia Kontogouris; Phil Black; Darcy Bentley; Scott Kurnit); publisher/ blog partners; the gang at Oddpost who showed us the way to build frugally/ intelligently; OM Malik, Mike Arrington, Kara Swisher, Dan Farber, Matt Marshall and the many other bloggers who’ve partnered, written, and given us advice; our attorney (Stefan Clulow); Howard Zeprun and Ira Parker who insured the dialog kept moving forward; Jen Consalvo who understood our potential and introduced to a number of AOL groups, Lewis DVorkin and Bill Wilson who paid us the nicest compliment of all in offering to acquire our company and then doing so, family and friends. We’re thrilled to be part of this new genesis!
Sphere: Related Content
[...] My buddy Tony Conrad, co-founder & CEO of Sphere just called to let me know that he had sold his company to AOL for an undisclosed amount of money. The details of this announcement are on TechCrunch and also on the Sphere blog. [...]
tony, steven, martin, and the rest of the team…congrats! really happy for you…
don
Thanks Don!
[...] 14, 2008 · No Comments Big congratulations to the Sphere team for selling their company to AOL (and to AOL for a smart acquisition). It couldn’t have happened to a nicer and more talented [...]
Congratulations Sphere!!
Since I embedded the Sphere widget on http://www.pulse2.com, your startup has become my favorite of it’s time. Tony Conrad, thank you for personally e-mailing me when I needed help setting up the widget.
[...] Mailed by Om Malik [2] TechCrunch: AOL Buys Sphere’s Blog Content Engine by Michael Arrington [3] Sphere blog: Our New Address @ AOL.COM by Tony Conrad SPHERE IT! Categories: AOL, America [...]
[...] Sphere Chief Executive Tony Conrad expressed enthusiasm for the acquisition in his blog. “We are joining AOL at an opportune time. AOL is doing what great, sustainable businesses do every so often–they’re reinventing themselves,” Conrad said. [...]
[...] has found a home at the prescient AOL, as talked about on their blog, GigaOM, and Techcrunch. Sphere is a great company and the folks who made this happen at AOL will [...]
[...] Congrats to Sphere ! AOL acquires Sphere. [...]
[...] Sphere blog that was launched just two years ago as blog content “aggregation service” might be sold soon to AOL. There are rumors Sphere might cash in about $25 Millions or even more. [...]
[...] Lien : Explications par l’équipe de Sphere [...]
[...] by Martin Remy and Steve Nieker and best known for our Sphere Related Content Widget has been acquired by AOL a company soon to be with [...]
[...] today, it’s a much smaller slug for Sphere, which started as a blog search engine and morphed into a widely distributed “contextually [...]
That’s so weird all comments are trackbacks, well let me be the first one to say that I am happy for you guys. Hope you will not downgrade to dial-up now.
Congrats Tony et al. Well done. Having recently sold a business to them, I can assure you Time Warner is a great acquirer and the future is bright for their digital media properties. Let’s get together next time you’re in NYC.
[...] has recently bought over Sphere – a blog content engine that launched in 2006 (check out their blog post). While the price is not being disclosed, TechCrunch estimates it in the $25 million range. Amazing [...]
Congrats Steve, Martin, Tony and crew. Always knew you guys would knock it out of the park. Keep up the great work!
[...] has acquired Sphere for a reported $25m according to an announcement on the Sphere blog and on TechCrunch and [...]
[...] his blog, Sphere co-founder Tony Conrad said the acquisition came just at the right [...]
[...] Larry Dignan: Is AOL a viable option for Yahoo against Microsoft? AOL buys Sphere [...]
Congrats Tony, Josh and team! I guess you can do a lot without an office.
tony and team…. Congrats on the aquisition.
that is great news.
will
[...] it was announced that aol acquired sphere – which i personally could not be more happy about. the sphere team is a dream to work with – [...]
[...] and on), AOL will officially announce the purchase of Sphere. Note, that the rumor is confirmed on Sphere’s blog. Sphere provides contextually relevant content tools that make connections between text, video, [...]
Congratulations Tony, great news for you and the team!
congrats tony & team! now can i have a desk in your office? my view just isn’t the same
Congratulations! This sounds like a good fit with where AOL has been heading lately. I am happy for you and your team.
AOL buys Sphere…
Om Malik first spoke about this. The San Francisco based startup Sphere, which pulls and provides related content from across the web has been acquired by the once-almighty AOL for an undisclosed amount; some rumors believe it to be around $25 Million…
[...] AOL acaba de comprar Sphere, que para muchos es simplemente un Widget, pero en realidad es una de las maneras más simples de sumar contenido a tu blog o sitio de noticias, acuerdense que de Time.com hasta el NYT incluyen links o botones provistos por Sphere, y es, en definitiva una manera muy fácil de agregar tráfico entrante.. o saliente
[...]
Tony! I am so happy to publicly congratulate you on this effort. Great strategy, great team, great work by all. AOL is lucky to have you!
Tony, Jeff, and Sphere team,
Awesome, awesome job! Very happy for you guys!
[...] buyout – AOL acquires Sphere, the developer of the Related Content Widget. Note the groovy theme that the Sphere blog is [...]
That’s awesome! Congrats Tony and Martin! I’m sure you’ll continue to do amazing things.
AOL Buys Sphere For Content Recommendations…
My first day working at AOL back in the fall of 2006 I had the pleasure of having lunch with Tony Conrad as he was visiting to start working with the AOL. Since then, Sphere which I covered previously when it launched in May 2006, worked with both AOL …
[...] contents. Making you faster and showing you the web sphere’s news. Recently, the Sphere Blog confirms the acquisition and TechCrunch suggests the purchase price was at about $25 million.I am sure, AOL [...]
AOL compra Sphere…
…
[...] Conrad announced today that the Sphere team have been acquired by AOL. Sphere approached Adaptive Path in their “early days as a fledgling blog search [...]
Tony, thanks for the kind words about AOL. We’re very excited to welcome Sphere into the AOL family and are looking forward to help both you and your impressive list of content partners continue to grow and thrive.
Congratulations, Sphere. I am SO happy for all of you.
Sphere always had an ear to the ground on what the readers wanted and focused on making a great product.
So nice to see good and sincere work rewarded in this way.
Congratulations. Don’t spend all the money in one place
[...] we got into the show with a discussion surrounding the AOL acquisition of Sphere. Sphere provides a widget that pulls related content from around the web. Aaron doesn’t like [...]
Tony, congratulations to you and the whole Sphere team for an impressive trajectory from the get go, leading to this fantastic outcome. Best of luck for the next chapter as part of the AOL family.
Not much more to say that congrads. AOL seems to be looking to get back into the net game with a stronger line up. Smart pick up for AOL and hopefully good for you folks.
sphere include aol soleo solei!
[...] AOL 收購以出版者和部落客導向的搜尋引擎公司 Sphere [...]
congrats tony and crew. i always thought that sphere looked like it was the innards of the triangle…haha
Hey guys! Congrats!!!!!
xoxo
LC
[...] 16, 2008 at: 12:48 amFiled under: AOL, Search Engine 1 views It’s officially confirmed that Sphere has been acquired by AOL(link). Sphere was initially launched as a blog [...]
[...] Our New Address @ AOL.COM | Sphere Blog Posted in 검색, 소셜 컴퓨팅. Tags: 밈트래커. [...]
[...] купи Sphere 16. 04. 2008 AOL Sphere AOL купи startup-a Sphere, предлагащ технологии за линкове към статии, блог [...]
AOL Buys News/Blog Contextual Search Firm Sphere…
By Rafat Ali – Mon 14 Apr 2008 09:32 PM PST AOL (NYSE: TWX) has bought out Sphere, a blog and news contextual display service, for an undisclosed amount. The startup operates in a crowded contextual content display space with competition from the likes…
Congrats Tony! A job well done and well deserved.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch Tony!
Das ist eine gute Nachricht für alle Nutzer von Sphere!
Gemeinsam mit AOL werden Sie für die Zukunft Hohes
erreichen! Viel Erfolg für Ihre nächsten Projekte!
Gruß Jürgen / Cologne, Germany
[...] Sphere. Chief executive Tony Conrad has confirmed the deal to us and lays out some of the details in an official post on Sphere Blog. Conrad declined to state the terms of the deal, but TechCrunch has a source putting the value in [...]
Congrats folks.
Hey Tony…how can I reserve one of those bleacher seats in your group for the world series?
[...] connects contextually relevant content to your content, has been purchased by AOL. The Sphere Blog confirms the acquisition, and TechCrunch suggests the purchase price was at about $25 million. Sphere [...]
just saw this. congrats to tony and the team.
Just found out via ma.tt. Congratulations to all those that put in the hard work – including the users.
[...] we got into the show with a discussion surrounding the AOL acquisition of Sphere. Sphere provides a widget that pulls related content from around the web. Aaron doesn’t like [...]
well done, brother
it is a knew We need We used I go back decay year
rich flavor. reminded leaf snapping and eat Years later, damage
Congrats Tony! A job well done and well deserved.
Just found out via ma.tt. Congratulations to all those that put in the hard work – including
[...] is a San Francisco based blog content engine. Press Release | TechCrunch | BNet [...]
[...] Larry Dignan: Is AOL a viable option for Yahoo against Microsoft? AOL buys Sphere [...]
[...] Yesterday, AOL has pulled the plug on Sphere’s blog search engine. AOL had purchased Sphere in April 2008 (see here). [...]
[...] is a San Francisco based blog content engine. Press Release | TechCrunch | BNet [...]
CONGRATS TONY WELL DESERVED
[...] it was announced that aol acquired sphere – which i personally could not be more happy about. the sphere team is a dream to work with – [...]