“This is a great opportunity to take CCI to the next level,” stated Ben Sun, President of Community Connect. “Radio One reaches over 20 million people every week in radio, TV, print and online giving us the opportunity to capitalize on cross-platform opportunities for our brands that will truly benefit our members and advertisers.”

Community Connect Inc. (CCI), the parent company of BlackPlanet.com, GLEE.com, MiGente.com, and AsianAve.com has been acquired by Radio One. The price for all of the social networks combined was $38 million. Radio One is a radio broadcasting network company with an African-American demographic. BlackPlanet is Community Connect’s more popular social network.

As a matter of fact, BlackPlanet.com was named the largest multicultural niche social networking site of 2007. BlackPlanet was also ranked the 4th largest social networking site after MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo according to Hitwise.

Community Connect recently celebrated their 10th anniversary. The company was founded by Ben Sun, Calvin Wong, Peter Chen, and Michael Montero.

Given Black Planet’s membership size, I’m surprised that they didn’t hold out for more money. But then again, sometimes you have to accept what you can get and see what happens from there. Who knows where MySpace would be right now if they didn’t accept the undervalued News Corp. acquisition price?

Information Source:
[1] Radio One Press Release (via Trading Markets): Radio One, Inc. Announces the Acquisition of Social Media Network Community Connect Inc.