The Rise Of Content Marketing – About.com Sells For $300 Million
In case you missed the initial press release, The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) has entered into an agreement to sell its About Group, which includes the Web sites of About.com, ConsumerSearch.com and CalorieCount.com, to IAC (NASDAQ: IACI) for $300 million in cash. The all cash transaction is expected to close in the next several weeks. The Company intends to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.
Originally, rumors were circulating that Answers.com was going to buy About.com for supposedly $270 Million, however The news is out and despite IAC coming late to the game on the offer to buy About.com, they got it. The news has been confirmed by IAC and it includes the purchase of About.com, ConsumerSearch.com and CalorieCount.com.
Alexa ranks About.com as number 37 in the U.S. in terms of traffic, and 80 worldwide. Its pre-Demand Media approach to acquiring content for low prices spawned some 900 subject sites with general interest information on topics like regional foods, parenting and technology. In that, it served as a counterbalance to the New York Times itself both in substance and in business model — the idea behind About.com being very high traffic and advertising sold against that.
The $300 million is all cash and should close within “next several weeks.”
“About.com has been a strong contributor to our company since its acquisition in 2005,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Company. “About’s early expertise in search engine optimization, expert content and revenues from cost-per-click and display advertising made it a valuable component of our portfolio for the past seven years. This sale will allow the Times Company to focus on the development and growth of our core brands locally, nationally and on a global scale.”
This is right on par with what we have been telling our members inside the IMGrind Private Forums. Content Marketing has exploded over the last year and even have been approached over the last couple of months by numerous investors. No, we do not intend to sell, nor have we even considered it. We are having just way too much fun!
Founder & Entrepreneur at IMGrind & Mobgrind, Revived Media (our Mobile CPA Network) and iMobitrax (our Proprietary Mobile Tracker). I dedicate myself inside our Private Internet Marketing Forums teaching Entrepreneurs how to be successful with their businesses. Connect socially with me:
