WeSeePeople

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Discovery Channel and Animal Planet on the prowl to acquire social networking Web sites

Discovery Channel and Animal Planet on the prowl to acquire social networking Web sites
Discovery Communications Inc., owner of cable TV's Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, plans to buy social networking Web sites to complement its Internet business, Chief Executive David Zaslav said.

``We need to grow in new media,'' Zaslav told reporters last night at the annual Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. ``There are a lot of great companies here,'' he said. ``This gives us a chance to get a little more acquainted.''

Zaslav didn't name any potential acquisition targets. Facebook, Sling Media Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. are among social networking and other new media companies at the conference. Silver Spring, Maryland-based Discovery said in May it would close 103 stores and cut its workforce by about 25 percent to focus on selling toys, books and games on the Internet and through retailers.

Continued at Bloomberg..

1 comment:

Danielle Abernethy said...

It makes sense since Discovery has one of the best social networking sites for teachers that use their products - the Discovery Educator Network. If Discovery had FaceBook or Ning added to their list, they could reach more potential teachers for their education products and viewers for their channel productions.

I just hope Zaslov is using the mastermind Steve Dembo for his knowledge on what's what and who's who on those products. His blogs are awesome to keep up with all things new on the Internet Horizon.