Business Insider continues to assert that the real goal at AOL is to sell itself — to Microsoft. Along those lines, after the relaunch of Mapquest, the blog made a similar argument about its mapping division:
AOL finally updated Mapquest yesterday. Why, after all these years?
Two reasons: Because the thing is still number 2 in maps AND because AOL would very much like to sell it – possibly to Microsoft…
Looking at the new Mapquest, you can see for yourself that AOL is prepared to sell it. It’s almost impossible to find any AOL branding on the new site.
I could understand if the whole of AOL were being sold but why would AOL sell its biggest local asset given its alleged emphasis on local? (My theory had been that Bing would power Mapquest as an AOL property, as part of a larger search deal with Microsoft.)
Patch doesn’t use Mapquest and maybe AOL calculates that Mapquest isn’t “necessary” to its success given that its local strategy is now about content. However it still seems very strange to me that AOL would be trying to sell Mapquest.
What exactly would Microsoft be buying if it bought Mapquest? It would be buying a brand and traffic.
Mapquest now presents its traffic this way: “We reach nearly one out of every 5 people on the Internet in the U.S.” Quantcast says it’s about 37 million and Compete says its about 41 million.
Hitwise data reflect that Mapquest still “owns the brand,” though it’s share is not commensurate with that brand recognition.
Mapquest is the number two site, while Bing Maps is number 11 according to Hitwise.
It’s rational for Microsoft to consider buying Mapquest. It would achieve a kind of immediate visibility and exposure that’s been difficult for Bing Maps to gain organically.
Were Microsoft to buy the site it would probably throw everything away and simply put the Bing infrastructure behind the Mapquest.com site and brand (and transition that over time to Bing). The question is how much is all that worth, given that Microsoft doesn’t need the mapping software and platform itself?
Here’s a very crude and simple formula: According to comScore, AOL has 112 million uniques. Mapquest’s 41 million is roughly 36% of that audience. AOL’s market cap it $2.17 billion.
Thirty six percent of that $2.17 billion is $781 million.That number is probably too high by quite a bit. However AOL bought Mapquest in 1999 in an all-stock deal worth $1 billion.
Alternatively you could look at how much advertising revenue is associated with Mapquest — I don’t know that number — generate a multiple and throw in a little extra for goodwill.
If Yahoo hadn’t done the mapping tie-up with Nokia it would be a potential suitor for the division — assuming, again, that these BI statements are accurate. Whitepages.com is another one that would be a good potential fit for the company. But it would probably too expensive for them. And then there are the yellow pages publishers.
We’ll have to see. I will still be quite surprised if Mapquest is sold. But I suppose it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
