AOL is buying Tacoda for between $200 and $300 million according to reports today. To operate as a wholly owned subsidiary probably to get around the onslaught that will come from such a huge ad network (the largest actually via Advertising.com) buying a BT firm one presumes.

This deal is significant and at $200 million or so will be a steal for AOL. Why? Because Tacoda is one of the largest online firms that focuses on behavioral targeting by tracking web surfers habits (creepy but effective).

So now that Google bought DoubleClick, Microsoft bought aQuantive, Yahoo! nabbed Right Media, and WPP Group snapped up 24/7 Real Media, the online buying and placement landscape just took a big ratchet upwards in the muscle department.

If you thought you heard a sucking sound of print pages before, as soon as next year could turn into a whirlpool of dollars surging out of ‘old media’ and into the new. You read that prediction here first.