CNet’s Acquisition = Solid Business + Extreme Potential at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

CNet’s Acquisition = Solid Business + Extreme Potential

Published on May 15, 2008 in Business and Domain Names.

On the acquisition news of CNet by CBS The Washington Post published an article called “The Brand Everyone Wanted To Buy, But Didn’t Really“.

From the article:

So the saga of CNET (NSDQ: CNET) Networks finally has a home…well, at least on paper for now if and when the deal goes through, because there will be a lot of drama and opposition from Jana consortium on this. As Joseph mentioned, and as we implored before for CBS, this is the big one they had been wanting to do. I know from sources that CBS (NYSE: CBS) had looked at CNET at least three times before, as had everyone in the world, and passed on it. Not sure how CBS felt the economics had changed (well, CNET became more desperate, for one), but this certainly gives them a big play to build on its relatively small-ish and TV-focused online efforts till now. Everyone looked at CNET, including Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), New York Times (NYSE: NYT), CBS-sister company Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and many many others, but couldn’t make the economics work. The very same economics which Jana had been criticizing for a long time now.

Many companies who previously looked at CNet only saw what they had, what they produced. In essence, they were looking at a free ride, and not what can be done with what they have. Category killer domains such as TV.COM, Search.Com, Help.com, Downloads.com, MP3.Com, each on its own has the potential to be worth more than the CNet acquisition combined. How? Of course it takes talent, funding, execution, luck. With CBS behind these web properties many previously missing pieces are now in place. It is the combination of the two which compounds the potential of CNet alone.

2 Responses to “CNet’s Acquisition = Solid Business + Extreme Potential”

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1 Randolf
May 19th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

I like the graphic - it summarizes the existing vs. the potential brands and shows SO MUCH value…

I’d love to have this kind of money to start building these brands…
2 PJ
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 am

As a previous CNET employee, there was a rumor floating around that com.com actually made a substantial portion of the company’s revenue. BSD-based servers tack on a .com onto any domain they couldn’t resolve, thus landing the user on a search.com page with ads galore.

Pretty impressive usage of a clever domain.