CNET's Webshots deal not so flashy

Posted Oct 26th 2007 10:00AM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Yahoo! (YHOO), Technology

M&A can be tough -- especially in the tech world. After all, things can move pretty quickly.

And, unfortunately, this has been the case for CNET Networks (NASDAQ: CNET). That is, Thursday the company announced that it sold its Webshots property for $45 million to American Greetings.

Keep in mind that CNET paid $70 million for Webshots in August 2004.

Ouch.

No doubt, the online-photos category is fairly saturated. And, unfortunately, Webshots didn't keep up with Web 2.0 darlings like Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)'s Flickr. Oh, and Facebook and MySpace are also getting into the game.

If you rewind back three years ago, CNET said it bought Webshots so as to diversify its Web platform. But, if anything, it's been mostly a distraction.

For example, in today's Q3 report, CNET announced a loss of $16.6 million.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Tags: CNET, Facebook, inthenews, Webshots