Digital media company Ziff Davis acquired tech publisher CNET from its parent company, Red Ventures, for more than $100 million, according to reporting from The New York Times.
The acquisition confirms an Axios report from January, which found that Red Ventures had been quietly approaching strategic buyers to gauge their interest in acquiring the legacy technology title.
The tie-up will provide Ziff Davis—a publicly traded company with a portfolio of digital media titles—with a marquee publisher whose business model aligns neatly with its existing titles. Like Ziff Davis properties PCMag and IGN, CNET provides coverage of the consumer technology space and reviews products, generating direct, programmatic and affiliate revenues.
The acquisition also adds yet another chapter to the decades-long relationship between CNET and Ziff Davis. In 2002, CNET bought Ziff Davis for $1.6 billion and operated the title until 2008, when Ziff Davis declared bankruptcy and CBS, now Paramount, acquired CNET for $1.8 billion.
Both companies have since changed hands several more times. Most recently, Red Ventures acquired CNET in 2020 for $500 million. In January, it hoped to get at least $250 million for CNET, according to Axios.
The tie-up is the largest digital media acquisition of the year, as activity has been hampered by the declining value of the sector and a lack of strategic buyers. Other notable digital media acquisitions in 2024 include Sundial’s purchase of Refinery29, Minute Media’s purchase of the Sports Illustrated license and NTWRK’s acquisition of Complex.
CNET chafed under Red Ventures
Digital marketing firm Red Ventures acquired CNET six months into the pandemic, just as online commerce boomed and certain categories—including personal technology—benefited.
But under Red Ventures, the publisher encountered a series of reputational challenges. CNET, whose website launched in 1995, has long been a pioneer in the consumer electronics space, offering both sharp coverage of technology companies and meticulous product reviews.
But Red Ventures—with a portfolio including sites like Bankrate, Best Colleges and The Points Guy—operates a direct marketing model, often called intent media. To do so, its sites create content tailored to answer high-intent search queries, and then convert those bottom-of-the-funnel shoppers into consumers.
Red Ventures sought to apply the strategy to CNET, but in doing so it deemphasized the editorial content of the publisher, according to a person familiar with the matter. An extensive investigation by The Verge in February 2023 accused Red Ventures leadership of blurring the boundary between content and commerce.
“The Red Ventures playbook is successful, but CNET couldn’t just do that playbook and be successful,” the person said. “A vertical publisher benefits from being a service, which is at the heart of what CNET does.”
CNET generated further controversy when, in January, it used generative artificial intelligence to produce content without telling readers about the use of the technology. The articles were riddled with errors, and the resulting fracas helped spur the formation of an employee union.
In March, the publisher laid off 10% of its staff.
Ziff Davis’ strategy for acquisitions
Ziff Davis, like Red Ventures, operates a broad digital media portfolio composed of editorial publishers, direct marketing websites and other online tools, such as coupon providers and internet connectivity tests.
The company treats mergers and acquisitions as an integral part of its strategy. It acquired Lifehacker from G/O Media in March 2023, and it invested $15 million in Black media collective Group Black in April 2022.
Ziff Davis has a robust group of technology publishers, including PCMag and Mashable, that CNET could neatly complement. As signal loss challenges grow more persistent across the open web, publishers that serve high-intent readers, particularly in the lucrative consumer technology space, represent more valuable advertising inventory to brands.
The publicly traded company, which reports its second-quarter earnings Wednesday, had $891 million of cash on hand before it bought CNET.
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