Ed BottHow it started / How it's going
2002: CNET buys Ziff-Davis for $1.6 billion
2024: Ziff-Davis buys CNET for $100 million
Your modern media landscape in a nutshell.
sen@edbott @GossiTheDog The first article’s headline’s incorrect; Ziff-Davis split off ZDNET in 1999, and CNET bought that, not Ziff-Davis itself. But yeah, guess ZDNET’s back with the mothership now.
Uh, the story is actually from CNET, and it's accurate.
I was there! I worked for Ziff-Davis throughout the 1990s and have been at ZDNET since 2006.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/cnet-buys-rival-ziff-davis-for-1-6-billion/
But the dateline is probably wrong. It was indeed 2000. ZDNET at that point was a tracking stock for ZD.
There have been so many sales, mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, and bankruptcies along the way that it's been hard to keep track.
And, to the best of my knowledge, the current acquisition of CNET does not include ZDNET, so it's not "back with the mothership"!
(I still work at ZDNET and assume I would have heard something had our division been sold.)
Correction: The sale does indeed include ZDNET. So after almost exactly 25 years I will be returning to ZD and ZDNET will indeed be reunited with the mothership!
Crazy (but good) times.
@edbott @GossiTheDog *laughs* I didn’t recognise your name until just then. I had recalled that Ziff-Davis did something to separate ZDNET, so I went to WP to confirm and I only confirmed that the relevant WP articles need some rework.
Hel O'WeenReminds me of the AOL Time Warner deal:
AOL bought Time Warner for $183 billion in 2000. And when all was set and done (and split up again), Verizon acquired AOL for $4.4 billion in 2015.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarnerMedia#AOL_Time_Warner_(2001%E2%80%932003)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#2015%E2%80%932021:_division_of_Verizon
Tea time.
Russell Neches@edbott Giving Demolition Man vibes...