WebProNews

AOL has chosen to follow their successful launch of BloggingStocks last year with a spin-off that covers the private equity industry. Marty Moe, senior vice-president for AOL Money & Finance and Weblogs, Inc., talked with WebProNews today about the arrival of BloggingBuyouts, their latest financial blog. It has debuted a year after the company's BloggingStocks site, which now tracks about 350 stocks with some 45 to 50 bloggers covering them.

We asked if there was an audience for private equity coverage beyond places like Manhattan's Financial District or Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road. "Absolutely yes," he replied.

There a reason why people should be interested in private equity money and the firms behind it. Over the past few years, Moe said they have become more significant in driving our economy, as those firms progressed from sparse little deals to massive ones; the Google-DoubleClick deal comes to mind.

BloggingBuyouts philosophy will have the site covering the largest and most active private equity firms across the industry, Moe said. Names like Bain Capital and Texas Pacific Group may not be as familiar to people today, but they should be.

"We believe private equity is here to stay," Moe said.