As part of the deal, which Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington announced on her blog and AOL announced in a news release, Huffington is to become president and editor in chief of a new Huffington Post Media Group division at AOL.
Huffington will gain control of additional AOL news websites dealing with news, technology, women, entertainment and video content.
The combination of AOL's media efforts and the Huffington Post will reach about 117 million viewers in the U.S. and 270 million globally, AOL said.
In a statement, AOL said it is using about $300 million in on-hand cash in the purchase.
The deal still has to meet government approvals, but the boards of directors of each company and shareholders of the Huffington Post have approved the transaction, AOL said.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter or the early part of the second quarter this year, AOL said.
"The Huffington Post has already been growing at a prodigious rate," Huffington said. "But my New Year's resolution for 2011 was to take HuffPost to the next level -- not just incrementally, but exponentially. With the help of our CEO, Eric Hippeau, and our president and head of sales, Greg Coleman, we'd been able to make the site profitable. Now was the time to take leaps."
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