CBS buys CNet Network for $1.75Billion

[PaulPA]

The acquisition spree continues - Story [msnbc.msn.com]

[sem4u]

CBS Corp said on Thursday it would to buy web media company CNET Networks Inc, for about $1.8 billion, in a deal that would broaden the television broadcaster’s reach across the Internet.

I take it this includes the UK operation as well.

[engine]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

It'll be interesting to see how they'll use that investment.

[walkman]

this is an amazing investment. They will cut some employees and fill it with CBS info. CNet reaches the entire Internet world one way or another.

[grelmar]

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread from: http://www.webmasterworld.com/foo/3650929.htm [webmasterworld.com] by engine - 4:21 pm on May 15, 2008 (utc +1)

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From Wired (AP) [news.wired.com]:

NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS Corp. agreed to buy online technology news and entertainment company CNet Networks Inc. for about $1.75 billion, expanding its access to the burgeoning Internet advertising market.

The New York-based owner of the CBS television network said Thursday it offered $11.50 per share for San Francisco-based CNet, whose board accepted it. The bid is a 45 percent premium above CNet's closing price of $7.95 on Wednesday.

Now that's the deal MS should have pursued. The CNet group has been a solid performer, and profitable, through many ups and downs.

The article states (and I'll take it with a grain of salt), that CNet holdings along with CBS's existing stable of sites, puts them in the top 10 companies for content pageviews.

[zafile]

During the past couple of years, I've been receiving a newsletter titled ZDNet Tech Update Report.

I've noticed the newsletter contains a heavy amount of articles in favor of open source software.

The amount of articles have made me think of CNET as a company heavily influenced by an editorial team that doesn't care about promoting products that do make money.

It seems CNET's editorial team used to be pretty happy about its status quo. [ [nytimes.com...] ]

I bet you many editorial members thought: "Isn't this nice, we get paid salaries to write about products that really don't make money. To hell with the shareholders, we don't owe them nothing. Viva la revolucion!".

CBS should take a macro look at the content of ZDNet Tech Update Report and other CNET publications.

[martinibuster]

The aged CNET Networks has been an available Internet property for awhile now but over the years has played the role of Anastasia to a succession of Web 2.0 Cinderellas.

Is CBS Prince Charming or the doughy baker?
Isn't CBS the television network for senior citizens? CBS is talking this up as a way to disseminate their content but the tech part of CNET is a round peg to CBS' square hole.

CBS’s CEO Leslie Moonves told reporters on a conference call that acquiring access to CNet’s large online audience in order to distribute media content from CBS was “a large part” of CBS’ motivation in going after the San Francisco-based online company.

“Our idea is to have our content wherever, whenever you can get it, and adding CNet just makes that happen faster,” Moonves said.

[edited by: martinibuster at 6:01 pm (utc) on May 15, 2008]

[Miamacs]

... will they ruin CNet ?

One of the last OK content site networks out there ?
I don't want them to change.

[koan]

I bet you many editorial members thought: "Isn't this nice, we get paid salaries to write about products that really don't make money. To hell with the shareholders, we don't owe them nothing. Viva la revolucion!".

They don't get paid to promote commercial softwares, which would be a serious conflict of interest, they get paid to review all available softwares, including open-source. I don't see why you want them to become shills for corporations. Their duties are to their readers.

[walkman]

>> I don't want them to change.
the surest way to guarantee this is a $2 Billion bid ;)

[potentialgeek]

News.com is a domain CBS will enjoy owning. They had a bunch of other good domains, too.* Not sure it's all worth $1b, though, incl. businesses.

* CNet is known for technology reviews but has also expanded into entertainment areas with sites that include ZDNet, GameSpot.com and mp3.com. It also owns the highly valuable Internet domains names TV.com, Radio.com and News.com — names that would have clear associations with CBS’s television, radio and news businesses.

[Vishal]

Yeah if I am not wrong the list of sites/domains owned by CNet also includes:

download.com (wow now that is a catch)
mp3.com
search.com
news.com
com.com
mysimon.com
TV.com
gamespot.com
... and many more.

They recently sold webshots.com