Red Ventures explores sale of CNET

Red Ventures, the digital media and marketing juggernaut, has approached strategic buyers about offloading tech news and reviews site CNET, reports Sara Fischer of Axios.

Fischer reports, “Red Ventures acquired CNET, along with a few smaller websites, from ViacomCBS, now Paramount Global, in 2020 for $500 million. It’s hoping to get at least half of that for CNET alone.

“Red Ventures has been quietly approaching strategic buyers, mostly other large media holding firms, for several months to gauge their interest in CNET, but talks began to ramp up before the holidays, sources told Axios.

“Red Ventures hired CNET’s former president Mark Larkin to return to the site as president in November. Larkin left CNET in 2021, after having spent roughly two decades there, including 12 years under its previous owners at CBS.

“The process, for now, is still informal, as the company looks to boost earnings before a possible sale. CNET is profitable, sources said.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.