Categories: OLD Media Moves

Investors seek takeover of CNet

Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times writes Monday that a group of investors are seeking to take over technology news company CNet.

Sorkin wrote, “Without commenting on the proposal, CNet said in a statement Sunday that under its new management it had ‘made significant strategic, financial, personnel and operational progress.’ It said the company had disposed of underperforming assets, made strategic acquisitions and recruited new managers.

“CNet also noted that it had added two independent members to its board.

“The company, founded in 1992, has more than 2,600 employees. It has been particularly hard hit because of increased competition in its core market from technology-focused blogs like TechCrunch, written by a handful of people at a fraction of the cost. In September, page views at TechCrunch surpassed those at CNetâ€™s News.com, long considered the industry stalwart. In October, TechCrunch and its sister site had eight million page views compared with News.comâ€™s six million page views, according to comScore Media Metrix.”

Read more here.

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.