a bubble of what? AOL, a profitable public company, acquired a private company.
The private company had employees and investors. Both of whom presumably got a tidy return on their time/money.
Pretty much the worst thing that can happen is the acquisition flunks, in which case it's cost AOL "tens of millions" - AOL is a profitable billion dollar company. If the acquisition fails, well, acquisitions are risks - some succeed and others fail.
