The Phoenix has risen! Jason Calacanis, erstwhile owner of the defunct Silicon Alley Reporter (1996-2001) has scored big by selling his Weblog company to AOL. Zach Rodgers of Clickz ran a piece about the deal today.

Jason is one of the great PR people of all time. A great promoter and a great deal maker. Jason is one of the first people to cash in on blogmania. It is nice to see a fellow beaten by the Internet crash of a few years ago to make such a strong comeback and to make a bundle of money to boot.

AOL should let Jason be the front person for Aol.com. Jason's PR skills are so good that he would get AOL in the news almost as much as Google! I doubt Time Warner could stand Jason's "heat" but it would do wonders for their stock valuation. Most likely he will stick around for a while and then come up with another Internet business.