Rumor has it that AOL is getting ready to buy TechCrunch. An announcement is expected to come at the TechCrunch Disrupt event taking place this week.

Om Malik at GigaOm reports, "The deal is at a sensitive stage and might fall apart yet, but I don’t think so." Neither TechCrunch owner Michael Arrington nor AOL has commented on the matter.

This is not the first time a deal between the two companies has been rumored. In fact, it's more like the third time, according to Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider, who says the problem in the past has been valuation. 



"During the second run, AOL wanted to buy TechCrunch for something a little under $25 million," he writes. "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."

AOL has rebranded itself as a content machine, and TechCrunch would certainly fit into this mold nicely. AOL already owns tech blog Engadget.