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CNET Bought by CBS for $1.8 Billion

CNET LogoCBS is buying CNET for $1.8 billion. This vaguely makes sense for both sides (both are news and content “publishers”) and boosts CBS’s online presence and reach. For CNET it gets them out of the troubles of being a public company.

But what’s more interesting to me is this traditional media company buying a “new media” company — although CNET is old new media — as a quick way to boost its visibility and reach online. CNET is a top 15 Web property according to comScore. CBS also recently acquired LastFM. (RippleTV is also a potential CBS takeover target.)

The purchases are something of a “hedge” against the decline of traditional media businesses (TV, radio). Here’s the press release.

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Yesterday, Comcast acquired Plaxo. I’m not a fan of Plaxo, which remade itself from spam generator into social network. Comcast is one of the potential sleeping giants in local — with the capacity to make some interesting acquisitions — but it could well remain asleep.

This entry was posted on May 15, 2008 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Acquisitions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “CNET Bought by CBS for $1.8 Billion”

  1. » We can. We will. We must. | The Journalism Iconoclast Says:
    July 9, 2008 at 6:02 am

    […] been Web success stories. CNET has become a powerful and successful force in tech news on the Web. CBS recently bought CNET for $1.8 […]

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