AOL Inc will acquire the Huffington Post in a $315 million deal that creates an unlikely pairing of two online media giants, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The two companies completed the sale on Sunday evening. It will allow AOL to greatly expand its news gathering and original content creation, areas that its chief executive, Tim Armstrong, views as vital to reversing a decade-long decline, the Times said.

The Huffington Post, which began in 2005 with a meager $1 million investment and has grown into one of the most heavily visited news Web sites in the United States, the newspaper said.