CBS ( NYSE: CBS ) is acquiring CNET ( NSDQ: CNET ) for $1.8 billion in cash. The purchase price comes to $11.50 per share, representing a 44.6 percent premium over last night's closing price of $7.95. This is that big acquisition we've been waiting for from Quincy Smith's CBS Interactive, and from CNET's ...
CBS Predicts $1 Billion Interactive Revenues By 2010
alleyinsider.comFound 85 days, 7 hours, 54 minutes, and 30 seconds agoThe all-cash deal represents a premium of 44% above the $7. On the other hand, CNET hasn't traded above $10 for years, so the JANA team will be getting a very nice return over a relatively short time, which ought to ease their pain. Despite Quincy's frenzied deal-making and hand-shaking over the last ...
CBS Corporation To Acquire CNET Networks, Inc.
biz.yahoo.comFound 85 days, 7 hours, 59 minutes, and 22 seconds agoUnder the terms of the agreement, CBS will make a cash tender offer for all issued and outstanding shares of CNET Networks for $11. Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest- growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new ...
CBS to buy CNET Networks
news.comFound 85 days, 8 hours, 34 minutes, and 11 seconds agoCBS has agreed to acquire CNET Networks in a deal valued at $1. The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and about 200 million users worldwide, the companies said. It Would be nice to click on ...
CBS to Pay $1.8 Billion for CNET Networks
dealbook.blogs.nytimes.comFound 85 days, 6 hours, 36 minutes, and 7 seconds agoCBS said Thursday it would buy CNET Networks for $1.8 billion in cash, marking its biggest online acquisition since hiring Quincy Smith, a former media and technology investment banker, to lead its interactive unit in late 2006. ...
Why Buying CNet Makes Sense for CBS
gigaom.comFound 85 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes, and 17 seconds agoJANA Partners didn't think highly of CNet's scattershot approach to diversifying into non-tech segments (amongst many other issues). What I think CBS needs to do is come to San Francisco with an industrial-sized equivalent of a corporate vacuum cleaner. Second, it needs to cozy up to Google, Yahoo or ...
CBS to Acquire CNET for $1.8 Billion
centernetworks.comFound 85 days, 7 hours, 38 minutes, and 36 seconds agoJust hitting the wires -- CBS to acquire CNET for $1.8 billion. There's a call at 8:30AM and we will cover the call live. Ashkan called this one almost down to the exact price. Update: Check out our live notes from the conference call. ...
CBS buys CNET Networks for $1.8 billion [Acquisitions]
valleywag.comFound 85 days, 7 hours, 18 minutes, and 3 seconds agoShareholder activists Jana Partners and company got their way, sort of. CNET has new management, and in fact ownership : CBS, which will purchase CNET for $11.50 a share, or $1.8 billion. That's about $150 million more than Google paid for YouTube, but there is no buyer's remorse from CBS as of yet. ...
CBS buying CNet in online push
dailybriefing.blogs.fortune.cnn.comFound 85 days, 7 hours, 59 minutes, and 20 seconds agoCBS ( CBS ) is making a bigger push on the Internet. The broadcast company said Thursday it would acquire CNet ( CNET ) for $11.50 a share, or $1.8 billion , in a deal that will make CBS one of the top 10 Internet companies in the United States. The deal offers CNet shareholders a 44% premium to Wednesday's closing price and comes as CBS has been struggling to gain traction with investors. "There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNet Networks," said CEO Les Moonves.
mathewingram.com
So CBS -- an "old" media giant that hasn't been doing so well lately -- plunks down $1.8-billion for CNET , a "new" media giant that hasn't been doing so well lately. Does this sound like something to get excited about? ...
Found 84 days, 23 hours, 36 minutes, and 39 seconds ago
moconews.net
CBS To Acquire CNET For $1.8 Billion In Cash
Found 85 days, 4 hours, 24 minutes, and 26 seconds ago
fimoculous.com
Everyone saw the CNET bailout coming, but I don't know anyone who was betting on CBS to buy . $1.8 billion ain't that bad, actually.
Found 84 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes, and 29 seconds ago
blogs.chron.com
From the Surprise-that's-not-a-surprise Dept.: Old-line broadcast media company CBS is paying a 44 percent premium for an old-line Web company, CNet Networks . CBS was around at the dawn of the broadcast age, and CNet is a Web 1.0 company that's been struggling to make its way in the Web 2.0 era. CBS is offering $11.50 a share for CNet, quite a bit more than the $7.50 closing price on Wednesday, for a total nut of $1.8 billion. CNet has been a rumored takeover target for years, and in fact a group of investors was planning a proxy battle.
Found 85 days, 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 43 seconds ago
marketingshift.com
Look out web media companies -- Comcast is coming. The cable giant is continuing its empire building with the acquisition of social site Plaxo. Plaxo enables people to create a single home page that pulls in content from any and all of their social sites. Comcast wants to take the social interaction for finding people and sharing content t o the set-top box , and the Plaxo acquisition is a big step in that direction. Comcast would like people to spend more time in front of the TV rather than at the keyboard to reverse the current trend.
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes, and 19 seconds ago
shore.com
More to the point, it begins to round out a portfolio of solid and up-and-coming destination content holdings that CBS has assembled. As CNET's own news blog notes it will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million monthly unique visitors and about 200 million users worldwide. While much of the media business focuses on familiar moguls and the battles of print titles to condense into some sort of stable business CBS has become quietly a superstar of destination content the old fashioned way - by building up a portfolio of superstar publishing properties.
Found 85 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes, and 44 seconds ago
torstensson.com
Corporate raider Carl Icahn's attempt to sell Yahoo! to Microsoft is not noise, but it is CBS acquisition of CNET for $1.8 billion that I find truly interesting. My relationship with CNET is no longer a daily love affair, but in the pre-blog world News.com was a daily read.
Found 84 days, 23 hours, and 18 seconds ago
observer.com
CBS has just announced plans to acquire online media company, CNET, in a deal worth $1.8 billion.
The press release says: "The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide."
Most of you probably know CNET.com, the Web site that breaks news about online and tech industries.
They're also the purveyors of ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 27 minutes, and 7 seconds ago
feeds.feedburner.com
This is huge for CBS. There is not much I can really say, but WOW…
CBS has agreed to acquire CNET Networks in a deal valued at $1.8 billion, the companies said Thursday .
The purchase price comes to $11. ...
Found 85 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 12 seconds ago
rebuildingmedia.corante.com
CBS buying CNET might make sense financially and the chart they released (see bottom of post ) showing the various properties makes a good case for "synergies" of adding unduplicated audience in various verticals. CBS Chief Les Moonves, in PaidContent interview , makes a good case for the assets and how they all fit.
It's the operational part -- integrating the two -- that will be a challenge. Very different cultures, even if CNET is one of the more traditional-style companies in its space.
Found 85 days, 5 hours, 58 minutes, and 14 seconds ago
furrier.org
CBS buys CNET as reported first by PaidContent.org. I need to digest the impact of this but off the top of my head this is clearly CBS 2.0 - the web2.0ifcation of CBS. I expect CBS to let the CNet folks lead the charge. It's a public secret that there is some great talent at Cnet waiting for the 'green light' to compete. We've seen this with the recent moves by Dan Farber. Dan has successfully started CNet in the direction of blogging and social media. Charles Cooper is blogging hard and twittering.
Found 84 days, 18 hours, 31 minutes, and 57 seconds ago
churbuck.com
8 billion ( thx Chris) - a 44% premium over yesterday's closing price. Silicon Alley Reporter has the skinny and is blogging the call at 8:30 EST. What can I say? CNET started as a TV show, morphed into an online network, blazed some strong trails in the early days (from developing its own content management system, early moves into video and user reviews, extension quickly from computers to consumer electronics), grew like a weed, ate the traditional tech rags lunches, acquired ZDNet, then, post 2000 bubble-pop, hiccupped a little, soldiered on, the founders (Halsey Minor, et al) moved on, and then, indigniities of indignities, upstarts start picking fights with them.
Found 85 days, 7 hours, 54 minutes, and 25 seconds ago
gesterling.wordpress.com
CBS 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.
Found 85 days, 8 hours, 34 minutes, and 6 seconds ago
innonate.com
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
- A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes
--
All for not!
Remember how Michael Arrington had big big plans to take over the digital media world by buying Alley Insider , Center Networks , and yours truly (well…;) then only to turn around and buy CNET?! He could rule the Internets worlds!!!
Well, looks like CBS just bought CNET for $1.8 billion, a 45% premium on its closing price of last night.
So, where will Arrington go now? Will he dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Found 85 days, 7 hours, 23 minutes, and 18 seconds ago
blogs.barrons.com
CBS (CBS) this morning announced a deal to buy CNET (CNET) for $11.50 a share in cash, or $1.8 billion.
CNET owns a variety of Internet sites, including ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET News.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic. CBS owns CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSCollegeSports.com, MaxPreps.com, CBSNews.com, last.fm, Wallstrip, MobLogic, and CBS Radio and CBS Television Stations digital media platforms. CBS says the deal will make it one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide.
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 54 minutes, and 25 seconds ago
technudge.net
BS Corporation has entered into an agreement to acquire CNET Networks, Inc., it was announced today by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, CBS will make a cash tender offer for all issued and outstanding shares of CNET Networks for $11.50 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $1.8 billion.
The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide.
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 54 minutes, and 32 seconds ago
solsie.com
[Source Yahoo! Finance ]
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 54 minutes, and 22 seconds ago
gawker.com
CBS! Catch the fever! Their nightly news program is exciting and revolutionary when it's edited all jumpy like this, isn't it? And outgoing anchor Katie Couric sure received a lot of praise from people whose names we can't read! Our favorite part of this new CBS promo (Katie just put it up on her YouTube channel!) is at a little more than 30 seconds in, when they play a brief clip from their interview with the man who grew his finger back with pixie dust. Remember him? What an inspiring tale! One man, against the odds, promotes his brother's biotech firm in news outlets across the world, all of whom are more than willing to cover a bullshit junk science story without doing even cursory research.
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes, and 17 seconds ago
nathanr.ca
May 15, 2008 - 07:08 AM PDT - by Stan Schroeder -
CNET Networks, and all of its properties, including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, CNET News, UrbanBaby, BNET, CHOW and Search.com, are being acquired by CBS for a total price of $1.8 billion.
Under the terms of the agreement, CBS will make a cash tender offer for all issued and outstanding shares of CNET Networks for $11.50 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $1.8 billion. This transaction will instantly propel CBS into one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the US, with 54 million unique monthly users, and approx.
Found 84 days, 21 hours, 45 minutes, and 59 seconds ago
board.iexbeta.com
View: Full Article
Found 84 days, 17 hours, 35 minutes, and 9 seconds ago
newteevee.com
Everyone's weighed in on CBS' $1.8 billion acquisition of CNET , but no one's really talking about how the deal impacts their web video efforts. Liz thinks CBS is hipper than CNET when it comes to web video, but how will the two companies join forces?
We called up CBS Interactive President Quincy Smith to talk about online video's role in the acquisition (we even snuck in a question about CNET's lack of embeds), and while we had him, about what to expect from CBS's new partnership with EQAL to Lonleygirlize the network's shows.
Found 84 days, 14 hours, 59 minutes, and 1 second ago
observer.com
CBS has just announced plans to acquire online media company, CNET, in a deal worth $1.8 billion.
The press release says: "The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide."
Most of you probably know CNET.com, the Web site that breaks news about online and tech industries.
They're also the purveyors of ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.
Found 206 days, 21 hours, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds ago
profy.com
I'm starting to think I may just want to skip right over the rest of 2008 and start fresh in 2009 when companies come to their senses. First HP decides to acquire support service dinosaur EDS , then Comcast snaps up Plaxo (all the better to throttle your bandwidth AND that of your social graph, my pretties!), and now CBS buys CNET . I'm sure CNET is ecstatic about the news; several of their properties have
Read more
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 27 minutes ago
markevanstech.com
Having experienced the dot-com boom (circa 1998 to 2001) as a technology journalist and startup entrepreneur, it was a really exciting time: lots of new and exciting companies and concepts, spectacular IPOs, great parties (amazing food, open bars) and sweet, bountiful swag. ...
Found 85 days, 9 hours, 7 minutes, and 21 seconds ago
pulse2.com
[ 2 ] CBS Corporation Press Release: CBS Corporation To Acquire CNET Networks, Inc.
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 26 minutes, and 58 seconds ago
webguild.org
CNET is being acquired by CBS for $1.8 billion in cash. The purchase price is a 44.6 percent premium over last nightâs closing price of $7.95. CBS CEO Les Moonves said âCBS stands for premium content and unparalleled reach, and CNET Networks will add a tremendous platform to extend our complementary entertainment, news, sports, music and information content to a whole new global audience. Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest- growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives.
Found 85 days, 4 hours, 24 minutes, and 1 second ago
gwhiz.wordpress.com
This merger may make a lot of sense on paper. c|net may have a nice, clean, neat fit on the new org chart.
But…
This merger makes about as much sense as WalMart.com acquiring Zappos.com. It may make a lot of sense, but why close the deal and drag down two good things with one stone? CBS Interactive + c|net ≠ FTW.
Found 85 days, 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 2 seconds ago
dj.riceweevil.com
Found 101 days, 4 hours, 23 minutes, and 51 seconds ago
contentsutra.com
As has already been widely reported, CBS ( NYSE: CBS ) is acquiring CNET ( NSDQ: CNET ) for $1.8 billion cash, marking the big acquisition we had anticipated and enabling CNET to avoid a proxy battle with Jana. We have Rafat's first take on the move, as well as Staci's interview with CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith and CNET CEO Neil Ashe and her exclusive with CBS CEO Les Moonves . Some highlights:
-- CBS Acquiring CNET For $1.8 Billion; 44.6 Percent Premium
Found 84 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes, and 9 seconds ago
metarand.com
After much speculation as to where CNET would end up - they've landed in the lap of CBS.
CBS Corp will acquire CNET Networks in a transaction valued at $1.8 Billion. As a result they'll have access to a greatly enhanced online footprint.
I expect this deal to receive a lacklustre response. CBS will need to do a lot to revive user excitement in CNET.
Other coverage:
Silicon Alley Insider
paidContent
Found 85 days, 8 hours, 9 minutes, and 13 seconds ago
inquisitr.com
CBS has entered into an agreement to acquire CNET Networks for $11.50/ share or $1.8 billion.
According to a company release , the acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide.
San Francisco based CNET Networks owns sites including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic.
Found 85 days, 7 hours, 59 minutes, and 16 seconds ago
news.com
The group, which advocates for Internet users, said indications are that NBC sent a "broadcast flag" that triggered the block. But Danny O'Brien, EFF's international outreach coordinator, said the block couldn't have occurred unless hardware and software makers honored the network's request to prevent users from recording the shows. It appears Microsoft may have obeyed NBC Universal's broadcast flag.
NBC Universal and Microsoft said they need time to look into the matter.
The incident began when several dozen users of Vista Media Centers from across the country gathered online at a message board, The Green Button , to complain about being prevented from recording NBC shows American Gladiator and Medium .
Found 85 days, 6 hours, 54 minutes, and 15 seconds ago
thylmann.net
In a marriage between old media and new, CBS has agreed to buy online news site CNET Networks for $1.8 billion in a deal that should end the recent struggle to control the board of CNET.
The move comes after CNET's management had come under attack by shareholders for not doing enough to increase its market value.
Found 85 days, 5 hours, 4 minutes, and 23 seconds ago
layoutsbychacha.info
CNET Networks, and all of its properties, including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, CNET News, UrbanBaby, BNET, CHOW and Search.com, are being acquired by CBS for a total price of $1.8…
Found 85 days, 2 hours, 9 minutes, and 21 seconds ago
dougstech.com
of Adobe Flash Player 10, which has built-in P2P features and is able to save files to the local drives. I was reminded by Hank Williams about the new release, and its big impact on the world of video in particular and other web apps in general.As some of you might remember, I wrote about Adobe's P2P ambitions that revolved around buying a company called Amicima.
Found 84 days, 13 hours, 51 minutes, and 16 seconds ago
rajivdoshi.com
CBS To Acquire CNET
Found 84 days, 13 hours, 35 minutes, and 43 seconds ago
