CNET has News.com, ZDNet, GameSpot, mp3.com, Download.com, TechRepublic, UrbanBaby, MySimon, and a number of other premium domain names. Once integrated into the “CBS collective”, the company will have access to 54 million monthly visitors.
I remember when News.com first came onto the Internet in the early 90’s. It was a great site and offered*real* commentary on technology. The company has gone through some tough times, so its good to see that its been recognised and acquired as a premium media property.
I believe that this is a great strategy; although we have seen this before with Rupert Murdoch and MySpace. If you can’t build them, then buy them. You can bet the company boardrooms of TV networks are buzzing with questions like “ok… who are we going to buy?”. Hold on kids, this is just the start of acquisitions by TV networks!
Ask.com has acquired Lexico Publishing Group LLC, and with that comes the following domains:
Dictionary.com (estimated 22.1m visitors in March)
Thesaurus.com
Reference.com
Unfortunately the terms of the deal, aren’t being disclosed. Associated Press is reporting that Jim Safka (who runs Ask for for IAC / InterActiveCorp) said that “more than 30 percent of the search requests entered on Ask are seeking reference material.”
What’s my take on this? Well, how do you compete when your fifth place, and have somewhere between 2% - 4% of the market? Go and buy a heap of key premium domain names, develop them and then link them all up!
So how far will Ask go? Should Wikipedia be concerned? Didn’t this type of strategy fail for AOL back in the early 90’s? Hey kids, lets go make our own Internets - go get those tubes over there….
Unfortunately the terms of the deal, aren’t being disclosed. 
