In a deal secured late Sunday night and announced shortly after midnight, AOL has bought The Huffington Post for $315 million (“$300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock”). HuffPo started in 2005 and is now a major source for news and political info, among other things. And AOL is, well, AOL.

As the New York Times reports, “The deal will allow AOL to greatly expand its news gathering and original content creation, areas that its chief executive, Tim Armstrong, views as vital to reversing a decade-long decline. Arianna Huffington, the cable talk show pundit, author and doyenne of the political left, will take control of all of AOL’s editorial content as president and editor in chief of a newly created Huffington Post Media Group. The arrangement will give her oversight not only of AOL’s national, local and financial news operations, but also of the company’s other media enterprises like MapQuest and Moviefone.”

Well done, Ms. Huffington, well done.

For the full article, go here.

• Tag: AOL, deals, Huffingotn Post, media