Ziff Davis Buys CNET for $100 Million

Tech-focused website CNET is changing hands yet again.

Media giant Ziff Davis is purchasing the outlet for $100 million from Red Ventures, Ziff Davis’ CEO Vivek Shah told the New York Times on Tuesday. Red Ventures acquired CNET in 2020 from ViacomCBS for $500 million, with the new price serving as a stark reminder of how significantly the media landscape changed in the last four years.

Ziff Davis is the owner of IGN, Mashable, PC Mag and Lifehacker and in a curious turn of events, CNET previously purchased Ziff-Davis for $1.6 billion in 2000. Shah bought Ziff Davis in 2010 with Great Hill Partners, and the company was sold to J2 Global in 2012, after which it went on a run of acquiring tech-focused outlets.

CNET launched as a website in 1995 and made a mark with its tech reviews. The outlet was plagued by scandal in 2023 when a Futurism investigation revealed that a bevy of articles had been written using generative AI, and in turn had directly plagiarized other outlets like Forbes. Weeks later, 10% of the staff was laid off.

Shah told the New York Times that, despite the shifting media landscape and Google uncertainty with the rise of AI, there’s still a need for reliable product reviews.

“Technology and telecom products and services — whether for an individual, their home or business — continue to be complicated,” Shah said. “There’s lots of choice that requires advice. So I think there’s just real editorial need for it.”

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