Fresh after being acquired by CBS, CNET has made an acquisition of their own.  CNET China bought 55BBS.com, a Chinese lifestyle forum website.  President of CNET China, Lu Wang announced that they paid over 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) cash for the site.

Given 55BBS.com’s traffic ranking, the acquisition amount seems pretty low.  But it does give Hua Han, founder of 55BBS a pretty nice payday.  55BBS’ primary content is shopping, food, wedding, travel, etc.  There are over 800,000 users that submit 100,000 posts daily.

This is one of the first major acquisitions made by CNET China since they bough Xcar, a Chinese automotive forum in July 2006.  CNET also bough Fengniao, a Chinese photography website in October 2004.

“There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks,” stated CBS CEO, Leslie Moonves. “CBS 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. We could not be more pleased with the prospect of adding CNET Networks and its tremendous team of people to the CBS family. I look forward to working with Quincy Smith, Neil Ashe and the considerable combined talent at both companies, as we build upon our success.”

CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) announced today that they have entered an agreement to acquired CNET Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:CNET).  Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of CBS made the announcement.  CBS will pay $11.50 per share in cash for all issued and outstanding shares.  This amount represents $1.8 billion.  CBS has now become one of the top 10 most popular Internet companies.  CBS and CNET combined receives 54 million unique visitors per month and has 200 million users.

In 2007, CNET made $406 million in revenues through its various Internet properties.  CNET owns News.com, ZDNet, CNet.com, GameSpot.com, MP3.com, UrbanBaby, TV.com, TechRepublic, MySimon, BNET, Search.com, and CHOW.  The content on these sites will be integrated into CBS’ Internet properties: CBS.com, CBS Radio, Wallstrip, last.fm, MaxPreps.com, CBSCollegeSports.com, CBSSports.com, MobLogic, and CBS’ TV stations.

“The core businesses of CNET Networks and CBS Interactive represent near perfect category symmetry in premium online content,” said Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive. “Together we will have a terrific opportunity to not only grow our established businesses, but to build new attractive verticals of content as well. This is the beginning of an era for both CBS and CNET Networks; plus, it’s going to be great to work with Neil and his team, many of whom I have known for many years.”

This acquisition also ends CNET’s fight with Jana Partners, a hedge fund that wanted more control over the board.  CNET recently signed a joint advertisement partnership with Yahoo!  Yesterday, I also wrote about how CBS agreed to a partnership with the producers of KateModern and LonelyGirl15.  CBS is making very strategic Internet moves.  These are some solid partnerships and acquisitions.

Information Sources:
[1] News.com: CBS to buy CNET Networks by Margaret Kane
[2] CBS Corporation Press Release: CBS Corporation To Acquire CNET Networks, Inc.
[3] paidContent: BREAKING: CBS Acquiring CNET For $1.8 Billion; 44.6 Percent Premium by Joseph Weisenthal

The trials and tribulations of a public Internet company is especially shown by the recent occurences around CNET Networks, Inc.  Here you have a company valued at $1.3 billion, trading at about $8.40 per share and on the other side you have investors that just bought 10.5% voting stock of the Internet company that wants to see some change.  JANA Partners upped their stake in CNET to 10.5% from a previous 8.1%. 

The Company carefully reviewed JANA Partners’ proposal and determined that it is improper under the Company’s by-laws. CNET Networks’ governance processes and by-laws are intended to enable all stockholders having a legitimate interest in enhancing the Company’s value over time to submit proposals, and to prevent short-term stockholders without standing from using the Company’s established governance procedures in order to further their individual agenda. Furthermore, the Company believes that no person or group of persons should be able to gain a majority of the Board and control of the Company without offering sufficient value to all stockholders.

CNET Networks Inc. press release [via paidContent]

JANA responded by saying that CNET’s statement was a misrepresentation.  JANA wants to recruit highly qualified board members to increase the long-term value of the company for stockholders.

The current CEO of CNET is Neil Ashe and today he gave a presentation at the Citigroup Global Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference.  Some of the discussion that took place at the presentation can be found at paidContent.

“This transaction enables CNET Networks to continue to focus on key areas of growth,” stated Neil Ashe, the CEO of CNET Networks. “We’re pleased that Webshots can become an important ingredient to American Greetings business.”

CNET Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:CNET) announced earlier today that they would be selling Webshots to American Greetings.  CNET is a media company that serves as a benchmark for technology blogs everywhere.  CNET will be selling off Webshots for $45 million.  CNET acquired Webshots in 2004 for $70 million ($60 million in cash and another $10 million for company fulfillments).

Webshots was a photo sharing web site that received roughly 7.2 million visitors in September 2007 according to TechCrunch.  However, Webshots’ 2004 press release of the acquisition stated that Webshots received 14 million visitors as of July 2004.  If anyone knows the actual traffic stats, please feel free to comment to this blog post.

It is assumed that the reason why CNET may wanted to have taken a loss for this company is because Flickr seems to be dominating the photo-sharing market as of right now.  CNET has also hired Stephen Colvin, a publishing executive to help determine how to manage CNET’s current subsidiaries, MP3.com, GameSpot, FilmSpot, and TV.com to compete more aggressively against other media companies.

As far back as I can remember, as long as there has been Napster, there has been an MP3.com. Like the chicken and the egg, I don’t know which came first though. In any case, on Monday November 13, 2006, MP3.com released new features that levels the playing field between mainstream artists and upcoming indie artists.

These new features include web applications that allow these indie artists and mainstream artists to store music and upload videos, photos, and a biography. MP3.com has also added audio players that utilize Adobe Flash technology with playlist capabilities and has even included 100MB of storage for users as well.

This new commitment towards leveling the playing field for these indie artists is a sign that MP3.com is preparing themselves to take on other web music competitors such as Yahoo! Music. “We want to promote music from mainstream artists and give maximum exposure to independent artists who deserve to be heard and discovered,” stated Laura Hess, an MP3.com director.

Although MP3.com themselves do not sell the music, MP3.com execs believe that there is a tremendous advertising opportunity for these new features. “We’ll get more advertising to site with more traffic, which enables us to offer everything for free,” Ms. Hess continued. If a user is interested in purchasing music that they hear, MP3.com refers them to music downloading websites such as Napster, iTunes, and Rhapsody.

Quick History of MP3.com:
1998 - MP3.com was originally owned by Martin Paul, who purchased it to match his initials. Shortly after, MP3.com was bought by Michael Robertson for $1,000 from Martin Paul. Robertson then attained a $11 million investment by Sequoia Capital. Robertson added a large collection of MP3s that attracted copyright infringement lawsuits courtesy of five major music labels and the RIAA.
1999 - MP3.com went public and raised $370 million
2000 - In the case of UMG vs. MP3.com, Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled in favor of the record labels and MP3.com forked over $200 million to these labels and shut down their services.
2001 - Universal Music Group’s parent company, Vivendi Universal Music acquired MP3.com for $372 million in cash and stock.
2003 - Unable to recover MP3.com’s popularity, Vivendi then dismantled the website and sold it to CNET Networks Inc. CNET put MP3.com under construction for some time.
2006 - MP3.com is now fully legal and open for business from small- to large-sized clients.
[Source: Wikipedia]