If AOL is as close to buying TechCrunch as GigaOm reports, it wouldn't be the first time.
A source close to the negotiations tells us AOL has tried to buy TechCrunch twice in the blog's five year history.
First, former AOL CEO Randy Falco targeted Michael Arrington's industry-leading tech blog.
Then, shortly after he became AOL CEO in 2009, Tim Armstrong also made a bid.
The problem was valuation.
During the second run, AOL wanted to buy TechCrunch for something a little under $25 million. TechCrunch, in negotiations led by CEO Heather Harde, wanted closer to $30 million. AOL wouldn't go there because it thought too much of TechCrunch's revenues were from a conference business it didn't entirely own itself.
TechCrunch has since divorced itself from its one-time conference collaborator, Jason Calacanis, and launched a wholly-owned conference series, Disrupt.
