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CBS Acquires CNET Networks for $1.8 Billion
An anonymous reader writes "According to an announcement made today by Neil Ashe, CEO of CNET Networks, CBS has acquired CNET Networks. "Today, CNET Networks announced that it has been acquired by US media company CBS, in a deal valued at $1.8bn. The agreement represents an important strategic step for both companies and should be completed by the third quarter of 2008." So guess we'll be seeing The Late Show with Dan Ackerman, Molly Wood in Hollywood and CSISpot." If you'd like to read about it someplace other than CNet, Ian Lamont contributes a link to coverage at The Standard. It seems reasonable to ask how much longer they'll let news.com remain an IT-centric site.
And the new company is....CnetBS?
This guy's the limit!
Just wait until China decides to purchase CBS.
I wonder if there was internal discussions in the buyout about how much the domain news.com was worth as I can certainly see that being attractive to CBS.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
Wow, and I thought CNET was huge already. Almost like the government purchasing Microsoft.
Wait... maybe not quite.
Need an automatic screenshot taker? Try here.
What about news.news.com and news.news.news.com?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
"news.com" domain name sold for 1.8 billion, because that's what it really boils down to. Sure, they get a portfolio of websites that get a lot of eyes and I would imagine a fair amount of dollars, but everyone knows how fickle that can be in today's world. CBS's news divsion is at the bottom of the pack of major US news networks despite the Katie Couric hire, which was supposed to get them back on track. This sounds like a similar ploy, the bulk of C-Net being sweetener to the "screw the news division, it's not a profit center" investors.
I didn't realize that CNET had $1.8 Billion in office furniture. That is what they are buying it for, right?
They really NEED some modernization over there. Granted they will have to explain the concept of the "internet" to many of their staffers, but hey if they can learn to use a telegraph, they can learn the internet too. And maybe someone on a CNET forum can tell them about Andy.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
...we'll soon C even more BS about the NET?
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I would have thought that either CNN or ABC would beat them to the bid. certainly, both have the money to acquire it. I guess then there must be something greater behind all this
If people can get past, can they get future? Best way to confuse a stoner
Canadian Security Intelligence Service ... + pot? c'mon, I expect that in the netherlands, but in canada? We're still working on legalizing it!
Yay, I guess... or maybe boo? Meh? Whatever.
CNet has been struggling recently and that valuation seems too high, but traditional media have a bad habit of paying too much for aqcuisitions of tech companies.... Comcast Acquires Plaxo, even though nobody can figure out how to make money AOL Acquires Bebo (popular, but not enough to justify almost a billion dollars) CBS (again!) Acquires last.fm (popular among bloggers but eclipsed by other sites in the real world) the only big media deal I can think of in recent years that was a good bet was Newscorp's undervalued' acquisition of myspace.
In the early 90's when there wasn't much else on the Internet for download sites, I used to go to Download.com to find shareware for Windows, CNet for product reviews and news. And yeas, there are a bunch of other umbrella sites under CNET. Frankly the only one I ever found of any use is GameFAQs. Over the years, the quality of those sites has decreased. There are many other sites I will chose over the CNet sites. So, I wonder if this is really a wise move for CBS. They've had a great history in journalism and now they've bought a site with not much in-depth or useful information. So this will either mean that the brand will either get worse (if CBS just wanted News.com and doesn't care for CNET or mismanages) or better (CBS will have an impact on the journalistic side and bring more quality material).
... iTunes U), and he discusses CBS's history and how the company (among others in news reporting) didn't get into the Internet right away. Perhaps this is seen as buying into the Internet experience and (obviously) adding technology reporting to its side. I don't watch MSNBC but I'd have to think that its more or less the same there.
Its interesting to see this from another angle. Dan Rather gave a speech (if I recall at Duke
I think the last time I happened to hit a CNet page was back in 2002 or 3, which is about the last time I watched CBS-TV.
Both those huge "studios" are better off producing content that's syndicated and embedded into smaller, more precisely targeted outlets. Like topical websites with video, video blogs, and viral email links. There is no "synergy" for me in their bundling their content into a branded outlet. Especially when that brand logo is seared into the lower left corner of my screen.
--
make install -not war
Seriously, I remember playing Shadowrun and Cyberpunk as a kid (ok, not a kid, but a long time ago...) and thinking the idea of megacorps running the world was nice for a fictional view of the future.
Apparently it wasn't so fictional with all these multi-billion dollar mergers of mega-media corporations, manipulation of political agendas by corporate interests, and whatnot.
Where do I sign up for my cybernetic implants because I know how this story goes and I want to have a fighting edge when things go bleak...
way to get the NEWS back into CBS was to buy the domain with the name.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
another big buck media company that is in alignment with MAFIAA and other bastardly organization's ideals, takes over an important internet presence. expect sh@t spreading around from cnet soon.
Read radical news here
pretty hard to believe 1 piece of vaporware is that much more valuable then a whole vapor-network!
CNet also owns TV.com -- surely that domain name, too, is of value to CBS.
I really wasn't aware how many domains CNET has. Did a bit of research and they own search.com, mp3.com, tv.com, radio.com, chat.com, etc. Those are some extremely valuable domains.
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.
The next time they create "fake but accurate" documents, they will be far more plausible!
Brett
They own it to. Just sayin'
Take out Andy Rooney and call it "55 Minutes".
My apologies for borrowing from an old Top Ten list, Dave.
Well, maybe this will free up Tom and Molly to join Leo at TWIT or Veronica @ Revision 3
CBS is buying much more than just a few (highly valuable) domains and websites with the acquisition of CNET - they are buying a highly trained technical team that has experience serving huge amounts of data to many users at once across multiple domains targeting many different interests. Which is of course, essentially what CBS wants to do, except they took a long time getting into the internet. To be completely honest they would have been better off making this purchase a few years ago.
This isn't to say that CBS doesn't already have a talented technical team, but I would place my bet on CBS planning to expand further into the internet realm. They probably realize that the future of their medium is tied heavily to the internet, and are making strides to ensure that they will be able to deliver their content over the internet seamlessly in the future. Even accounting for team attrition after acquisition, acquiring an entire company at once is probably much easier than a long term hiring process, especially for a company as large as CBS which has already hesitated too long.
CNET also has a blog that , while not extremely well known, is frequently perused by JavaScript and web developers- Clientside. I haven't visited Download.com in a long time, but I visit Clientside nearly every day for examples , reference, etc. I'm a little worried about its fate(considering that the author could leave always leave CNET after the acquisition), but I hope it survives. It's also a good example of the talent behind CNET- there are some good programmers there, for sure.
Yup, those were the days man; download.com was my friend, just like Tom's Hardware. Then along comes some big corporation and soon, the site is but a shadow of its former self.
In fact, it seems to be happening more and more these days. I think I'll give the phenomena a name and call it deja-rue!
Words to men, as air to birds.
I just don't feel the trust w/ See-BS at the helm. Guess I'll have to retrain the clients to go to Sourceforge or MajorGeeks...but they don't roll off the tongue like download.com does.
Going to have to start hammering tom's hardware guide(Tom who?)into their heads, too.
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
... so this is to complement Big Bang Theory?
I think perhaps they deserve each other.
According to http://www.dnscoop.com it's worth $734,464,000.
--- Band: Joey Ultra
Assuming CBS wants news.com for their own news portal site, the current CNet computer & tech news portal will be moved to a new, easy-to-remember address: com.news.com.com
Here's an example of not being careful.
Interesting! http://techwatch.reviewk.com/2008/05/first-take-analysis-cbs-cnet-acquisition/
I remember when they moved into their new building in SF (which blocked my view of a little piece of the bay making me hate them). That same year they bought a bunch of really nice furniture for the building that is rumored to have cost almost exactly as much as the layoffs they had the same year.
ZDnet I guess spun them off too or is the new name going to be ZDCnetBS which will becoming to our websites shortly due to lack of foresight from any of the companies board of directors.
Three things you can count on happening are.
1 Low wages for the peons.
2 disgruntle workers leaving due to a new non compete agreement.
3 overly ad laden site promoting CBS views and crap shows.
just remember if this happens we the consumers will do what the cybermen from doctor who would do. we would upgrade our bookmarks of the universe to version 2.0 and DELEEEEETE Cnet from it!
TSS
One can only hope.
The merits of the deal aside, this also is another trend of the center of the entertainment business slowly moving north into San Francisco and Silicon Valley. We have apple now a major distributor of tv shows and music, disney's Pixar, and that other animation studio in Redwood City. Not to mention all the very small indie production that goes on there as well.
I stopped reading anything on CNET long ago. The pandering to advertisers and anti-anythingMSHates was way too much to stomach. Besides as an apple fan boy they were way too anti Apple for my tastes. Oh and their "journalists" didn't seem to bother doing research at all.
Why bother
*ala David Letterman* /b/
10. Just about everyone on 60 Minutes fears the Internet will send robots to eat their medication.
9. Microsoft will show up with a greater bid to buy Les Moonves.
8. Zug.com's John Hargrave will replace David Letterman in 2012.
7. Everytime a computer is given out as a prize on The Price Is Right, John Dvorak will show up and tell you what a piece-of-crap it is.
6. Old and busted: CBS Sunday Morning; New hotness: The long overdue Meet the Sess !
5. To compete with X-Play, Pauley Perrette and Sean Murray will review games next week on NCIS.
4. At least we can cancel The Big Bang Theory!
3. Morgan Webb will replace Katie Couric.
2. Terrorists will break into CBS Headquarters and Rickroll America on CSI: New York
1. Survivor: 4chan
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
Use the proper term, darn it:
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
You have no idea how right you are. I'm looking at the TV.com website and the predominate shows that are being advertised tonight are on CBS or the CW.
Lets not forget why having big media companies, owned by big corporations, owning Internet companies is a bad idea.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
This isn't 1998 anymore. CBS wasted a lot of money.