PDA

View Full Version : CBS acquires CNet

JD
05-15-2008, 07:37 AM
And pays $1.75 billion for it (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_hi_te/cbs_cnet_5).
CBS said the deal will boost its online presence and allow it to tap the rapidly expanding market for online advertising. CNet's Web sites include News.com, TV.com, Mp3.com, MySimon and GameSpot.
-Julian
UncleSmoothie
05-15-2008, 08:01 AM
That's an acquisition that makes sense, if you ask me. If I were CBS I'd start showing all of my network programming on TV.com.
sventest
05-15-2008, 08:01 AM
Jeeeesus. Holy overpayment Batman.
UncleSmoothie
05-15-2008, 08:03 AM
I don't know if that's overpayment. The "TV.com" and "News.com" domains are worth a huge chunk of change on their own, plus the years of high-PageRanked CNET gadget reviews, to say nothing of the rest of the network. I agree with the assessment in the article, CNET is an underdeveloped property, if anything.
Desslock
05-15-2008, 08:49 AM
Jeeeesus. Holy overpayment Batman.

That's actually almost the same price CNET itself paid for ZDNET back in 2000, which indicates that the overall value of CNET has declined since then.
Rorschach
05-15-2008, 08:54 AM
It makes sense, CBS really didn't have much of an online presence and now they jumpstarted themselves into the top 10.
Cubit
05-15-2008, 10:20 AM
I like the purchase. Gives CBS some diversification in a market that makes sense for them.
Donald L.
05-15-2008, 12:06 PM
That's actually almost the same price CNET itself paid for ZDNET back in 2000, which indicates that the overall value of CNET has declined since then.

That valuation happened in the Dotcom bubble.
AndrewM
05-15-2008, 08:04 PM
Don't they also own com.com? I seem to remember that at one point news.com redirected you to news.com.com, for reasons I do not understand.
Cronox
05-16-2008, 01:53 AM
Don't they also own com.com? I seem to remember that at one point news.com redirected you to news.com.com, for reasons I do not understand.

Yes, they do own com.com and news.com did used to redirect to news.com.com. I think it’s quite a smart acquisition, as was mentioned above their domains (news.com, tv.com, com.com, mp3.com, download.com) are worth a boat load by themselves, the actual cnet sites drive a good amount of traffic and they seems to be doing fairly well with their “new media” podcasts and streaming video stuff.