Verizon is buying AOL for $4.4 billion. The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal is "aimed at advancing the telecom giant’s growth ambitions in mobile video and advertising."

Here's how the NY Times describes the two companies: "Verizon is the largest mobile phone operator in the country, and has growing lines of business offering high-speed Internet, as well as business and streaming video services. AOL, which acquired Time Warner for $165 billion in what is broadly regarded as a debacle and the high-water mark of the dot-com bubble, is now a shadow of its former self, managing a small collection of media and technology properties." Ouch.

From Verizon's press release:

Verizon’s acquisition further drives its LTE wireless video and OTT (over-the-top video) strategy. The agreement will also support and connect to Verizon’s IoT (Internet of Things) platforms, creating a growth platform from wireless to IoT for consumers and businesses.
AOL is a leader in the digital content and advertising platforms space, and the combination of Verizon and AOL creates a scaled, mobile-first platform offering directly targeted at what eMarketer estimates is a nearly $600 billion global advertising industry. AOL’s key assets include its subscription business; its premium portfolio of global content brands, including The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Engadget, MAKERS and AOL.com, as well as its millennial-focused OTT, Emmy-nominated original video content; and its programmatic advertising platforms.
Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO, said: “Verizon’s vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network platform. This acquisition supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience.”

An analyst dealsplains it to Bloomberg

, "[Verizon] want to integrate advertising and content programming with their wireless network. It’s an ambitious plan, the mobile advertising market is dramatically dominated by Google."

Techcrunch, which is owned by AOL, is upbeat:

For starters, AOL has been building up a programmatic advertising business to build up how AOL monetizes alongside newer formats like video and mobile. Currently that business — which is the fastest growing operation at AOL in terms of revenues — is split between ads on AOL-owned sites and third-party sites. Verizon picking this up could potentially further build out both, with the company partnering with the likes of ESPN to develop content and also giving the AOL-owned properties potentially much bigger audiences.
The other area of AOL’s business that is a fit for Verizon is the company’s still-lingering dial-up business, which is remains a big revenue generator for AOL, last quarter pulling in $182.6 million.
That may be a decline of 7% compared to a year ago but, as a business that gets almost no investment but continues to run, membership (where the dial-up business sits) is still a majority of the company’s operating income. Verizon could potentially tap these customers for potential switch to broadband and other services on top of that, an area where AOL hasn’t really innovated on its own.

Any tech writer or editor who casts Verizon-AOL as a "content" deal is a failure at their job.
— Chip Bayers (@chipbayers) May 12, 2015

Did Verizon talk to anyone who has experience working w/AOL's ad subsidiary? Or used the technology? Good Lord.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 12, 2015

Put in perspective: What's App purchased for $19 Billion, AOL purchased for $4.4 billion.
— Clayton Morris (@ClaytonMorris) May 12, 2015

Or as a hedge fund buddy of mine puts it: "Zero percent interest rates encourage stupidity"
— Erick Schonfeld (@erickschonfeld) May 12, 2015

Sources: AT&T to buy Prodigy
— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) May 12, 2015

A source tells Qz that Shingy will stay with AOL post acquisition http://t.co/1f3ROu0QQe pic.twitter.com/dHdJY07v6e
— John McDuling (@jmcduling) May 12, 2015

When Verizon announced it would start offering video content, Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said, "This will have nothing to do with what you do in your house. Millennials consume news in ways you can’t even see on the TV."

For those news sites that AOL owns—Huffington Post, Engadget, Techcrunch—it's believed that Verizon will spin those off.