NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told Ad Age today that he wants a "build-first" culture at his company, in which the growth is sparked internally, like the world's oldest startup. So why did he also just pay a reported $30 million, including incentives, to buy TechCrunch, the tech and startup news blog founded by former attorney and impresario Michael Arrington? 
 
 Tim Armstrong Credit: Scott Gries It's an echo of AOL's 2005 purchase of Weblogs, a collection of blogs that included Engadget and Joystiq, but it's a different direction than AOL's more recent build-not-buy ethos. But AOL isn't done. Earlier today it announced its acquisition of video startup 5Min for close to $65 million, and it has kicked the tires on companies such as Mashable and Howcast. 
 
 So why did AOL choose to buy? 
 
 TechCrunch has a big 'quality' audience: TechCrunch claims its network of sites reaches more than 9.2 million readers every month, generating 30 million page views in the process. ComScore says it draws in about 7 million global readers per month. Either way, it's clear they're high-value readers. Unlike Engadget, the profile of TechCrunch's audience tends toward angel investors, venture capitalists, executives and people highly interested in technology news. "There's almost no overlap between the two," said AOL sales chief Jeff Levick. 
 
 TechCrunch brings more of an insider's readership, which AOL can potentially sell at higher ad rates. 
 
 But it's also a consumer audience: Even without AOL, TechCrunch has managed to land consumer advertisers such as Cadillac and Mercedes. "You get both audiences," Mr. Armstrong said. "We felt it's a two-for-one transaction." 
 
 TechCrunch has conferences: Along with TechCrunch's readers, the blog company's bi-annual Disrupt conference is a moneymaker, according to Mr. Arrington. Every tech startup pays money to set up a tent and make its pitch to the hordes of investors that show up. Also, bigger media outfits (such as AOL) come to see what the next big startup will be, presumably so they can buy it. 
 
 Michael Arrington It may be profitable, or close to it: TechCrunch is a private company and does not publicly disclose its revenue figures, but Mr. Arrington has claimed in the past that the company is profitable, booking close to $10 million annually. That figure may not be far off, and given its relatively lean staff of around 32 people and its highly attended conferences, it's easy to see TechCrunch in the black. 
 
 AOL's internal startups have been problematic: AOL's best media properties, such as Engadget and Joystiq, were acquired from the outside. Meanwhile, its internal media startups have lacked focus. Said one AOL staffer: "Everyone in the company is very aware of the implications when Armstrong says he will continue to invest in things that are profitable, and that has implications for the existing properties." 
 
 OK, there's one potential pitfall: Mr. Arrington's big presence on TechCrunch cuts two ways. His voice, the loudest and best-known on the site, could be potentially troubling for his new bosses. Mr. Arrington becomes a part of the story when he publicly jousts with PR folks as well as executives, which may become a liability for AOL, a large, publicly traded company. It remains to be seen whether that voice will cause trouble for Mr. Armstrong. 
 
 Readers, of course, love it. But the other question, then, is whether news blogs built around a personality can continue to thrive after that personality's eventual departure is an open question for not just TechCrunch but Business Insider, PaidContent, GigaOm, Mashable, Venturebeat and ReadWriteWeb. 
 
 But Mr. Armstrong isn't worried: AOL has locked down Mr. Arrington for three years and Mr. Armstrong would like him to stick around "forever." 
 
 "A lot of these companies do start out as founder-driven, but we would expect Michael and the brand to continue to grow on a go-forward basis," he said. 

 A flag went up last week when Inc Magazine published a piece called "The Way I Work", by Mike Arrington. When has he ever taken time out to big up his own business? 
 
 It indicated, five years after the tech news site started, Arrington pausing for a rare moment to take stock of the TechCrunch state of things, and he made a nod to a change in pace – moving to Seattle to be nearer his parents and to demand a little more time for himself. He recaps the moment when he was spat on by an entrepreneur at a conference in Germany, and an episode of death threats – testament to how furiously influential TechCrunch had become to the startup scene, and how Arrington's takes-no-prisoners style won him as many enemies as friends. 
 
 Regardless of his personal style, TechCrunch is a powerhouse of tech reporting. Arrington prides himself on breaking news about web startups and tech giants first, regularly bulldozing PRs and entrepreneurs to get his way. 
 
 In the end though, it was Om Malik who got the story – TechCrunch has sold to AOL. It started with a rumour; within a day and a half it was all sewn up and Arrington had signed the papers live on stage at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference in San Francisco. 
 
 What next for TechCrunch? It's a high prestige buy for AOL, which is trying to boost its editorial operation under new chief executive Tim Armstrong. Being bought by AOL was the kiss of death for Bebo, but under Armstrong the company appears to have more focus; Armstrong insisted Bebo and ICQ were offloaded, but, along with the TechCrunch deal, also bought online video network 5min and Think Labs, who build social networking tools. 
 
 Arrington stops slightly short of waxing lyrical about AOL, but is clearly a fan. His post on the deal says he intends to stay with AOL for "a very, very long time" and that the team has incentives to stay on for three years. Given that TechCrunch is only five years old, that might turn out of to be a very long lock-in when things get less formal and, with familiarity, more contemptuous. 
 
 Peter Rojas, the founder of Engadget – which AOL bought in 2005 as part of Weblogs Inc – told The Atlantic last night that working with AOL's management back then "it was pretty difficult to get stuff done … at that time AOL was saddled with way too many layers of management". AOL today is a very different place, he says, but the state of being an entrepreneur can be hard in a big company. 
 
 When signing the papers on stage, Arrington asked the audience if he should go ahead or not – an unscientific 60% said yes, 40% said no. Which says something for the makeup of the audience. Arrington sold for around $25m, of which he is the major stakeholder. CNBC says the deal was more like $40m, but it is likely to be a $25m cash and the rest dependent on Arrington staying for three years. He'd also turned down offers from Yahoo and CNet. 
 
 On stage with Armstrong in a rushed announcement, Arrington quips: "We can just use the Bebo agreement as the basis for the deal – is that OK with you?" 
 
 Knock yourself out on the video: 
 
 
 
 Robert Scoble, Dave Winer and former TechCruncher Marshall Kirkpatrick, piled in to congratulate Arrington (Sarah Lacey was the only discreet critic, tweeting "sad"). But AOL will have to allow Arrington a significant amount of space in which to operate. Arrington is more capable of commanding that space than anyone, but place a bet on how long before he gets itchy feet and needs to build something new. After the thrill of the deal, where do you go from there? 
 
 I doubt Arrington craves stability, even if he is umbilically tied to TechCrunch. He calls himself a blogger, but he's more a very driven entrepreneur. Few industries change faster than technology, and if there's a new market and a new opportunity Arrington will rightly want to be in there. He'll have to wait three years – and that's a very long time in tech.
– AOL bought America's third-biggest tech blog and two other start-ups yesterday and signaled that the shopping spree will continue. But even as AOL chief Tim Armstrong and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington announced the $30 million acquisition, AdAge wondered how TechCrunch's take-no-prisoners approach will mesh with a huge publicly owned company like AOL. Arrington says TechCrunch will operate as an AOL subsidiary and keep its distinctive style, which has made it a powerhouse of tech reporting but has also made Arrington more than a few enemies—including Yahoo's CEO, who told him to f*** off earlier this year. Arrington says he'll stick with the site for a long time, and AOL has locked him down for three years, but "place a bet on how long before he gets itchy feet and needs to build something new," Jemima Kiss writes at the Guardian. And once that happens, AdAge notes, the question becomes: What happens to personality-driven blogs when that personality wanders off into the wilderness?