Over the past couple weeks, I've attended several conferences, such as Warrillow and Digital Hollywood. Of course, a big topic is New Media – and how it will somehow kill Old Media.

But, it seems that Old Media is still alive and well. In fact, this week we've seen some key media deals; that is, CBS' (NYSE: CBS) $1.8 billion deal for CNET Networks (NASDAQ: CNET) and Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) $175 million purchase of Plaxo.

Funny enough, yesterday I had breakfast with a big-wig from Comcast (from the ecommerce division). While he said that his revenue line was still modest – compared to the rest of the organization – it was still growing at a rapid clip.

He was also a big fan of email marketing and mentioned that experimentation was critical (and, with Plaxo, I think he'll need a lot of creativity to make the deal work). Yet, he also extolled the virtues of synergy ... between Old and New Media.

If anything, I think Old Media can bring some discipline to web properties. For example, CNET is a bloated organization and could use some aggressive cost cuts.

Oh, and Old Media still has a ton of money to throw around. So I suspect we'll see lots more dealmaking.

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 MergerBook.com.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• In a move to help turnaround its troubled business, General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) will sell or divest its appliance division, and could expect to receive between $5B and $8B for the unit, according to the Wall Street Journal. Potential buyers appliance makers BSH Bosch & Siemens Hausger of Germany and Haier Group of China, as well as private equity firms and Controladora Mabe, GE's partner in Mexico.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) will acquire Plaxo, a networking Web site, in an effort to increase its range of services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• To help improve its Ask.com search engine, the Wall Street Journal reported that IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) will buy the Lexico Publishing Group, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.

WEB SITES:

• Citing the New England Journal of Medicine, Bloomberg reported that migraine headache medicines, including Merck & Co Inc's (NYSE: MRK) Maxalt and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's (NYSE: GSK) Imitrex caused potentially fatal reactions in at least 11 people. The Journal said people using "triptans," an older class of migraine drugs, could develop serotonin syndrome, which may cause fever, shock, vomiting and rapid heartbeat.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Increasing credit card delinquencies have caused banks to tighten their lending standards, which the Wall Street Journal said could result in a sharp pullback in consumer spending that would further weaken the slowing U.S. economy.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that U.S. criminal prosecutors have informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that they are seeking information gathered through its civil investigation of Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (NYSE: MER). The regulators will examine whether the securities firm booked inflated mortgage bond prices held despite knowing the valuations had dropped.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The major Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America are close to concluding a deal that could end the writers' strike as early as Monday, the LA Times reported.

WEB SITES:

• According to Wired, online contact management service Plaxo has accepted an offer for nearly $200M. Sources believe the purchasing company is "most likely" Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG).

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group Inc (NYSE: MFG) is today expected to announce that it will invest $1.3B in ailing Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (NYSE: MER), reported the Wall Street Journal. Merrill will also sell a Mizuho unit, Mizuho Corporate Bank.
• According to people familiar with the plans, the Wall Street Journal reported that Citigroup Incorporated (NYSE: C) is expected to announce a "sizable dividend cut" when it reports fourth quarter earnings this morning. The company is also expected to receive a cash infusion of at least $10B and a mortgage related write-down of as much as $20B.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Tories will not hinder Northern Rock nationalization, the UK Times reported. Shareholders are set to vote today on key proposals that could block a private sector sale of the bank.

WEB SITES:

• According to a source, VentureBeat reported that Facebook is "one hundred percent buying" early social-networking site Plaxo.

Founded in 2001, Plaxo was one of the early players in the social networking world. But, like many others in the space, the company has become part of the shadow of biggies like Facebook and MySpace.

So what to do? It seems the answer is: sell out. This is according to a report in the New York Times, which indicates that Plaxo has retained an investment banker, Revolution Partners, to test the waters.

Yet, at the same time, the company is trying to find ways to boost things. Plaxo's new strategy is to try to cleverly suck up users from Facebook and MySpace through a system called Pulse.

There is a new feature for the system which has a special script that scans your friends' pages on Facebook. It wasn't easy to pull off because email addresses are in graphical form on Facebook. But with optical character recognition scanning, it's not a problem for Pulse.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX), the DVD rental firm, and LG Electronics, have formed a partnership to have movies delivered over the Internet by Netflix to also be shown on TV screens via a new device, reported the Wall Street Journal. Efforts by Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) have not worked.
• According to people familiar with the situation, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is expected to indicate as early as today it will focus attention on Tata Motors as a bidder for its Land Rover and Jaguar units, the Wall Street Journal reported.

WEBSITES:

• After Intel Capital's (NASDAQ: INTC) president, Arvind Sodhani, resigned from the board of Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR), speculation began that Intel has some new plans in the Wimax arena that don't involve Clearwire, according to TheInquirer.net.
• Tech Crunch reported that Plaxo, an early social networking site with per-visit numbers comparable to that of Facebook, is for sale, and has hired Revolution Partners to handle the effort.

This week, Plaxo launched the beta of version 3.0 of its online contact management system. The company has been around for about six years and has integrated across widely used systems such as those from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

In all, there are about 15 million members. A nice amount. Why not leverage this footprint into a social networking play?

Well, that's the strategy at Plaxo now. That is, the new version allows its users to create their own networks as well as monitor the activities of colleagues. There are also tie-ins with web services from Flickr, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and others.

I recently interviewed Robb Hecht, who is an expert on social networks. He operates media consulting firm IMC Strategy Lab. According to him:

"With hundreds of online social networks available now, people are finding it difficult to be a member of everything. Instead, they are bound to turn to the new Plaxo 3.0. Formerly a 'has-been,' the new Plaxo looks like the new hot contacts aggregator -- a '"one-stop-shop" for a community of communities. It's looking like if you want to be at the center point of all the online social networks, then you have to be connected into Plaxo."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.