After exclusive talks, Neuf Cegetel has agreed to buy AOL France for $365 million in cash; the ISP business includes 500,000 broadband customers. As part of the deal, AOL will manage audience services and online advertising sales for Neufportail.fr, Cegetelportail.fr and Aol.fr with total monthly uniques of about 9 million. The deal still faces French regulatory approval, anticipated in the fourth quarter. Neuf Cegetel gets to hit its 2 million ADSL subscriber goal a year early while Time Warner continues its transition away from the ISP business. Neuf has also agreed to hire up to 140 AOL France employees. Release.
—This deal plus the sale earlier this week of AOL Germany to Telecom Italia for $852 million puts Time Warner well over $1 billion so far for AOL Europe divestment.
— As we already reported today, the sales process for AOL UK continues with Orange pulling out of the bidding.