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This
page highlights acquisition of web sites and internet services
by what has been dismissed as 'mainstream media' (MSM): print
publishing and broadcast groups such as News Corporation,
John Fairfax, Tribune and NBC.
It covers -
More
detailed information about each of the major media groups
is available on the Ketupa.net
site.
background
Acquisition
by MSM groups of online businesses has occurred over the past
ten years, with distinct peaks as the boom gathered pace (followed
by closure or disposal of some online operations in 2000-2001)
and from mid-2005.
Recent acquisition activity has been justified as addressing
the emergence of niche audiences, although the supposed "demise
of the mass audience" explored elsewhere on this site
has not yet seen marketing towards a billion "markets
of one". Those deals centre on sites that
- feature
classified advertising and search (in particular jobs, vehicles
and real estate)
- cater
to niches but supposedly have the potential for broad appeal,
in particular 'community networking' (aka social software
sites) such as Myspace.com, which was acquired by News Corporation
for US$580 million in 2005.
- allow
people to play casual interactive games
- enable
nonspecialists to store, send, edit and print photographs
-
allow users to build and search blogs.
Although
major investments have attracted most attention much of the
spending has been incremental and minor, with News for example
taking a US$3.5 million stake in recruitment search engine
Simply Hired in 2006.
Conventional wisdom is that the major groups are seeking to
acquire or build sites that attract those niche audiences
in substantial numbers, with a US site supposedly needing
upwards of a million unique visitors per month site for mass-market
advertisers.
To reach a narrowly defined audience, such as a major portal's
finance page, the cost for having an advertisement seen 1,000
times is US$20 to US$50. For a broader audiences with specific
interests, such as visitors to a job
search site, the price is US$4 to US$10 per thousand impressions.
For general audiences, such as regular users of Myspace.com,
the price is US$1 or US$2 per thousand impressions.
Landmark acquisitions by 'old media' (along with a few points
of reference) include -
1991
Tribune takes 10% stake in AOL for US$5m
1995
TMP Worldwide acquires Monster Board (Monster.com)
1997
BCE buys buys 10% of Sun Media and 40% of CANOE
1998
Disney buys 43% stake in Infoseek web portal
Vivendi sells 6.5% stake in Telewest for £200m
1999
Hearst-Argyle buys 30% of Internet Broadcasting and takes
stake in Geocast Network Systems
Carlton takes 20% stake in PeopleBank online job agency and
25% stake in Ask Jeeves UK
NY Times invests US$15 million in TheStreet.com
Scripps consortium acquires AdOne online classified network
2000
AOL merges with Time Warner
Liberty and Vulcan Ventures take US$190m stake in priceline.com
Knight Ridder, Gannett and Tribune buy CareerBuilder
INL sells Terabyte Interactive
2001
Primedia and About, Inc announce US$374m merger
Trinity Mirror sells ic24 ISP
Vivendi buys MP3.com for US$372m
Tribune, CareerBuilder and Knight Ridder buy Headhunter.net
2002
Vivendi sells its 50% share of Vizzavi for €142m
2003
Vivendi sells MP3.com to CNET
2004
DMGT pays £13.8m for Find a Property, UK's largest independent
property website
Seven sells AOL|7 stake to Primus
LexisNexis acquires Seisint for US$775m in 2004
Tribune, Gannett and Knight Ridder acquire CrossMedia Services
and launch ShopLocal.com
2005
NY Times buys Buys BlogRunner, Indeed.com and FM Publishing
EMAP pays £140m for online fashion portal Worth Global
Style
NY Times buys About.com from Primedia for US$410m
EW Scripps pays US$560m for Shopzilla
Dow Jones buys MarketWatch.com for US$519m
John Fairfax pays $38.92m for dating site RSVP.com.au
News Corp pays US$580m for Intermix Media
News pays US$25.3m for propertyfinder.com
Telegraaf Media Groep acquires 70% of Relatieplanet and Iwannadate
Viacom buys Neopets for US$160m
DMGT buys Zambeasy jobs site for £4.1m
Trinity Mirror buys recruitment service Hotgroup for US$87m
News Corp pays US$650m for IGN Entertainment Inc
News Corp pays US$580m for Myspace.com
Yahoo buys Del.icio.us
BSkyB pays £211m for UK broadband ISP Easynet
ITV buys Friends Reunited for £120m
DMGT buys Fastcrop (property site Primelocation.com) for £48m
2006
UBM buys lightreading.com and techonline.com
VNU buys UK's The Inquirer and France's Silicon.fr
Hearst buys NetDoctor, top UK consumer health site
NBC Universal pays US$600m for iVillage
Lycos US sells Quote.com to IDC for US$30m
VNU buys Tweakers.net, Holland's largest tech news site
John Fairfax buys Trade Me for $625m
Fairfax pays reported $5m for commercialrealestate.com.au
EW Scripps agrees to pay US$366m for UK price comparison service
uSwitch
Independent News & Media buys 20% of UK online gaming
company Cashcade
News pays US$3.5m for stake in Simply Hired
Reed Elsevier pays est US$40m for medical site Gold Standard
Viacom buys online gaming community site Xfire for US$102m
News acquires kSolo and Newroo
DMGT buys Allegran (inc dating portals GirlsDateForFree, DatesForParents.com
and LoopyLove.com) for £46.5m
DMGT buys 62.5% of Data Media & Retail (Carsource.co.uk)
Trinity Mirror pays £4.4m for Email4Property
Viacom buys Xfire for US$102m
Tribune acquires ForSaleByOwner.com
Viacom buys Y2M: Youth Media & Marketing Networks (publisher
of 450 online college newspapers)
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