Since Feb. 1, the price of AOL shares has dropped from $23.85 to $20.89 at yesterday’s close.

With 106.7 million shares outstanding, that means AOL has shed $315 million in value over the last five trading days — which happens to be exactly the same price AOL agreed to pay to acquire HuffPo.

Most media observers viewed it as a pricey deal, since it is based not on the slim profit Huffington Post claimed it made in 2010, on $31 million in revenue, or the $10 million profit it is projecting it will ring up this year on $50 million in estimated revenue, but rather on the $30 million in profit it is predicting for 2012.