Internet Statistics from Bizak

Bizak is still in beta collecting enough data to make the comparative analysis statistically relevant. It’s been a great week and we hope to have the benchmarks and comparisons open after another strong week (spread the word) of data accumulation.

So far there has been some interesting numbers. Of those who have contributed projects/websites to Bizak 43.75% of them use Google Adsense as their primary revenue source. In comparison none (0%) use Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft Search Advertising. 16.66% use in house advertising, 12.5% rely on product sales for revenues, 8.33% affiliate marketing, 8.33% service or consulting fees and 8.33% rely on a subscription model.

These numbers are interesting but probably not all that surprising. If you look around the majority of sites appear to use Google Adsense to cover costs. I would imagine these numbers will fluctuate over time (so contribute to Bizak), however, my guess is that Adsense will remain on top with at least a third of websites using it.

As for the main analysis from Bizak it’s probably still to early to be statistically significant however here are the averages (so far) for submitted projects. (Please note this includes all types of sites – once enough data is collected then these numbers can be sorted by Industry, Business Type and Revenue Source)

As of May 4, 2008 the total monthly averages for the following are:

• Monthly Visitors 169,881
• Monthly Revenues $16,808.62
• Revenues per Visitor (RPV) $0.42
• Monthly Costs $12,656.66
• Costs per Visitor (CPV) $2.08
• Monthly Earnings $4,151.96
• Earnings per Visitor (EPV) -$1.66
• Bizak Estimate $654,933.64

These numbers will fluctuate dramatically over time since the survey pool is still statistically low. Once Bizak launches their comparative analysis tools, startups and investors will be able to make these stats more relevant to their interests and business. For example, the costs estimates on many of the sites who sell products are very high since they are heavily invested in marketing costs.

SOURCE: Please feel free to source and use any of the statistics mentioned above. However, if used please source Bizak and link to http://www.Bizak.com. – Thank you!

If you wish to publish updates to these numbers please contact Bizak for the latest statistics.

Video of this Post

Comparative Analysis on Bizak.com

After many long months Bizak is almost ready to launch. We just finished our comparative analysis page (click image below for screen shot) and we will be opening up our tools for startups shortly. After a few weeks of data aggregation we’ll be opening up the site to investors and professionals.

Questions? Please feel free to contact me.

Link? www.Bizak.com

Spread the word!

Benchmarking Web 2.0

Well, after many months of development (and 2 months behind schedule) Bizak is soon set to release. The screen shot above gives you an idea of what Bizak looks like. The text below gives you an idea on what it will accomplish. To receive an invitation to our launch please click the link below:

Request an Invitation to Bizak’s Launch

www.Bizak.com

Entrepreneurs use Bizak to calculate the profitability of their business according to website analytics and key performance indicators. With visitors, revenues and costs data, Bizak automatically computes revenues per visitor (RPV), costs per visitor (CPV), earnings (profit/loss), earnings per visitor (EPV) and valuation (The Bizak Estimate.) Each one of these calculations can then be compared to other startups and industry benchmarks. With these calculations entrepreneurs are then invited to join Bizak’s elite network of investors and business professionals who are eager to invest in your profitability.

Investors use Bizak to discover new investment opportunities. From the calculation of comparative benchmarks investors can evaluate the earnings potential of startups in comparison to their competitors and industry. The Bizak Estimate gives investors an approximate valuation of internet startups based on revenues, traffic and EPV. This valuation can then be compared to other startups and the industry mean. Investors can also quickly calculate high and low valuations from a range of revenue multipliers.

Professionals use Bizak’s comparative traffic analysis to discover new advertising and business opportunities. With Bizak professionals can target business partners according to industry, application type and revenue source. Startups can then be sorted and compared according to traffic, revenues, RPV, costs, CPV, EPV, earnings and the Bizak Estimate. Click on a specific company and it will provide you with their business summary, contact information, and monthly results.

Bizak is a TOKiBiz

Hot or Not Acquisition

According to TechCrunch the online photo rating site known as Hot or Not has been acquired for $20 million by Avid Life Media. According to TechCrunch Hot or Not’s annual revenues are $5 million, with costs of $3 Million equaling a profit of $2 Million. Hot or Not receives approximately 5 million monthly visitors. Using the Bizak Calculator that equates to $0.08 revenues per visitor (RPV) and $0.03 earnings per visitor (EPV) after costs. (Since I don’t have their actual yearly visitor totals I’m assuming a total of 5 million x 12 or 60 Million yearly visitors.)

According to the valuation of the Bizak Estimate Hot or Not’s approximate valuation would have been $17,000,000.16. Our computations factor in Revenues, Traffic and EPV – a bit lower than the purchase price but close to target. If Hot or Not’s EPV was equal to its RPV (8 cents) then the Bizak Estimate would have been $20,000,000.16 for Hot or Not.

For the Bizak Calculator visit the business valuation section of Bizak.com.

Bizak Estimate & Earnings per Visitor (EPV) for Hot or Not Acquisition

Internet Acquisitions

Originally published October 2006

On October 9, 2006 Google announced the acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock. The purchase of YouTube is unique for Google in two ways. First, it marks the largest purchase that Google has ever made in its eight years and, Second, it will be the first time that the firm being acquired will retain its separate identity, branding and office locations.

The $1.65 Billion price tag also makes the YouTube acquisition one of the largest internet acquisitions ever. Some notable internet acquisitions that have exceeded a billion dollars include:

• eBay purchase of Skype for $2.6B in September 2005
• IAC/Interactive Corp purchase of AskJeeve’s for $1.85B in March 2005
• Yahoo purchase of Overture for $1.63B in October 2003
• Terra purchase of Lycos for $12.5B in May 2000
• AOL purchase of Mapquest for $1.1B in December 1999
• @Home purchase of Excite for $6.7B in January 1999
• Yahoo purchase of Broadcast.com for $5.7B in July 1999
• Yahoo purchase of Geocities for $3.6B in May 1999
• AOL purchase of Netscape for $4.21B in November 1998
• Disney acquires the remaining 57% of Infoseek for $1.62 Billion in July 1999

One other notable acquisition in recent times that did not exceed a billion dollars was News Corp’s July 2005 purchase of Myspace for $580 Million.

As is evident by some of the latest acquisitions the internet sector is hotter than ever. Let’s just hope that the acquisitions in the post internet bubble create longer lasting brands and businesses than some of the ones in the 1990s.

Online Media Consolidation

Yahoo

During the internet boom Yahoo made one of the biggest dot.com purchases ever with the $5.7 billion acquisition of Broadcast.com in July 1999. Broadcast.com was an online audio service created by Mark Cuban to stream live audio coverage of his favorite sporting events. Yahoo’s purchase of Broadcast.com made Cuban an internet legend, a billionaire and a future owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. At the time of the purchase Broadcast.com was a publicly traded company (BCST) who saw its stock rise over $7 to $125 after the announcement.

Yahoo’s first acquisition was for Net Controls in September 1997 for $1.4 million. Yahoo acquired ViaWeb, a developer of web commerce tools, for $49 million in stock in June 1998. In October 1998 Yahoo began its quest for free email service with the purchase of Four11 (Four11 offered a free email service via a product called RocketMail) for $92 million in stock. Today Yahoo’s free email service accounts for 40% of its overall traffic – the largest driver of traffic to the Yahoo network. Yahoo announced its acquisition of Geocities in January 1999 for $3.6 billion.

Yahoo jumped into the marketing world with the purchase of Yoyodyne in October 1998 for $29.6 million in stock. Yoyodyne allowed Yahoo to collect user data and act as an intermediary between its users and commerce clients. Yahoo purchased its popular Launch music site with its acquisition of Launch Media in June 2001 for $12 million. In December 2001 Yahoo purchased the online job search company HotJobs for approximately $436 million. Inktomi was purchased in December 2002 for $235 million followed by Overture in July 2003 for $1.63 billion. In April 2004 Yahoo purchased Kelkoo, a European comparison shopping site, for $579 million.

Yahoo! Acquisitions History:

* September 1997 – Yahoo acquires Net Controls for $1.4 Million
* October 1997 – Yahoo purchases Four11 for $92 Million
* March 1998 – Yahoo purchases Classic Games
* June 1998 – Yahoo picks up ViaWeb for $49 Million
* July 1998 – Yahoo acquires WebCal
* December 1998 – Yahoo acquires Yoyodyne for $29.6 Million
* December 1998 – Yahoo acquires Sportacy
* January 1999 – Yahoo acquires Hyperparellel for $8 Million
* February 1999 – Yahoo acquires Log-Me-On for $10 Million
* May 1999 – Yahoo purchases GeoCities for $3.6 Billion
* May 1999 – Yahoo purchases Encompass for $130 Million
* June 1999 – Yahoo acquires Online Anywhere for $80 Million
* July 1999 – Yahoo purchases Broadcast.com for $5.7 Billion
* November 1999 – Yahoo acquires MyQuest
* March 2000 – Yahoo acquires Arthas.com
* August 2000 – Yahoo acquires eGroups for $432 Million
* November 2000 – Yahoo purchases Kimo for $145 Million
* April 2001 – Yahoo acquires Sold.com for $30 Million
* June 2001 – Yahoo acquires Launch Media for $12 Media
* January 2002 – Yahoo acquires Hotjobs for $436 Million
* December 2002 – Yahoo acquires Inktomi for $235 Million
* February 2003 – Yahoo acquires Alltheweb for $100 Million
* October 2003 – Yahoo acquires Overture for $1.63 Billion
* January 2004 – Yahoo acquires 3721
* April 2004 – Yahoo acquires Kelkoo for $579 Million
* July 2004 – Yahoo buys Oddpost
* September 2004 – Yahoo picks up MusicMatch for $160 Million
* October 2004 – Yahoo buys Stata Labs (email search software)
* August 2004 – Yahoo picks up Farechase (online travel)
* March 2005 – Yahoo acquires Ludicorp Research (Flickr) for $40 Million
* March 2005 – Yahoo buys Stadeon (multiplayer video games)
* June 2005 – Yahoo acquires Dialpad
* June 2005 – Yahoo buys Blo.gs
* July 2005 – Yahoo acquires Konfabulator (Pixoria)
* August 2005 – Yahoo buys a 40% stake in Alibaba (Chinese eCommerce) for $1 Billion
* October 2005 – Yahoo picks up Upcoming.org
* October 2005 – Yahoo acquires WhereOnEarth
* December 2005 – Yahoo buys del.icio.us
* November 2006 – Yahoo acquires Bix

Google, Inc.

In January 2003 Google announced its purchase of Pyra Labs (Blogger), a weblog publishing tool which is currently the 32nd most visited site in the world (according to Alexa.com.) In June 2004 Google announced its purchase of Picasa, a photo management company based in Pasadena.

In June 2005 Google launched its amazing world satellite imaging tool called Google Earth. This technology was a direct result of its purchase of Keyhole in October 2004 which gained popularity with its satellite imagery during the commencement of the Gulf War in March 2003.

At the beginning of 2006 Google purchased dMarc Broadcasting to bring Google Adwords to the radio broadcasting industry.

Google Acquisitions History:

* January 2003 – Google acquires Pyra Labs – Blogger
* April 2003 – Google purchases Neotonic Software
* April 2003 – Google purchases Applied Semantics
* October 2003 – Google buys Sprinks
* July 2004 – Google acquires Picasa
* October 2004 – Google acquires Keyhole
* March 2005 – Google purchases Urchin Sofware for $30 Million
* August 2005 – Google acquires mobile startup Android (Palo Alto, CA)
* January 2006 – Google acquires dMarc Broadcasting
* April 2006 – Google acquires Orion algorithm from a student in Australia
* January 2006 – Google buys Reqwireless * August 2006 – Google acquires Neven Vision
* October 2006 – Google purchases YouTube for $1.65 Billion in stock
* October 2006 – Google buys JotSpot (developer of Wiki Technlogy)
* February 2007 – Google buys AdScape for $23 Million

eBay, Inc.:

In September 2005 eBay purchased Skype, an online telephone service with 52 million subscribers. During 2005 many of the major internet companies acquired or developed VoIP services including Yahoo’s purchase of Dialpad (June 2005) followed by Google’s launch of Google Talk (August 2005) and Microsoft’s purchase of Teleo (August 2005), a developer of VoIP.

eBay Acquisitions History:

* June 1999 – eBay acquires Alando
* June 2003 – eBay acquires EachNet, Inc. for $150 Million (Chinese eCommerce Company)
* August 2004 – eBay acquires a 25% stake in Craig’s List
* June 2004 – eBay acquires Baazee.com for $50 Million (online shopping site – India)
* September 2004 – eBay acquires Internet Auction Co. for $325 Million (online auction – South Korea)
* October 2004 – eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 Billion
* November 2004 – eBay acquires Marktplaats.nl for $290 Million. (Dutch classified site.)
* December 2004 – eBay acquires Rent.com for $415 Million
* June 2005 – eBay acquires Shopping.com for $620 Million
* September 2005 – eBay acquires Skype for $2.6 Billion
* October 2005 – eBay acquires VeriSign’s online payment service for $370 Million
* March 2006 – eBay buys a minority stake in Meetup.com
* January 2007 – eBay purchases StubHub (ticket reseller) for $310 Million

Notes:
1. eBay’s purchase of EachNet in June 2003 was the remaining 67% that it didn’t already own.
2. eBay acquired a 33% stake in EachNet in March 2002.

AOL/ Time Warner, Inc.

January 10, 2000 – AOL announced that it will purchase Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner. At the time of the acquisitions the purchase was valued at $160 Billion to create a combined company with a market cap of $350 Billion. On the day of the announcement Time Warner’s stock (TWX) skyrocketed up over $25 or 39% to $90.06. AOL’s shares declined 2% to $71.88.

AOL Acquisitions History:

* September 1997 – AOL acquires Compuserve for $1.2 Billion
* 1997 – AOL acquires ICQ for $287 Million
* June 1998 – AOL acquires Mirabilis Ltd for $287 Million
* November 1998 – AOL acquires PersonalLogic
* November 1998 – AOL acquires Netscape for $4.21 Billion
* June 1999 – AOL purchases a 10% stake in China.com
* June 1999 – AOL acquires Spinner (online music broadcaster) and Nullsoft (MP3) for $400 Million
* December 1999 – AOL acquires Tegic Communications
* December 1999 – AOL acquires Mapquest for $1.1 Billion
* January 2000 – AOL acquires Time Warner for $160 Billion
* November 2003 – AOL acquires Singingfish
* June 2004 – AOL acquires Advertising.com for $435 Million
* August 2004 – AOL acquires Mailblocks, Inc.
* August 2005 – AOL acquires Xdrive
* October 2005 – AOL purchases Weblogs, Inc. for $25 Million

Amazon.com

Amazon.com, one of the first online retailers, was founded in 1995 by Jeff Bezos and went public on May 15, 1997. Through both purchase acquisitions and its own development Amazon.com owns a number of internet brands including A9, Alexa and the Internet Movie Database.

Amazon.com Acquisitions History:

* August 1998 – Amazon.com acquires Junglee and PlanetAll for $280 Million
* April 1998 – Amazon.com purchases the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Bookpages (US Bookseller) & Telebook (German online bookstore) all in one announcement for a combined charge of $55 Million & 540,000 shares of stock.
* February 1999 – Amazon.com acquires a 46% stake in Drugstore.com
* March 1999 – Amazon.com acquires 50% of Pets.com
* April 1999 – Amazon.com acquires LiveBid.com (live-event auctions)
* April 1999 – Amazon.com spends $645 million to acquire Exchange.com (owner of Bibliofind.com & MusicFile.com), Accept.com & Alexa Internet.
* November 1999 – Amazon.com acquires Back to Basics Toys (classic toys)
* February 1999 – Amazon.com acquires a minority interest in Geoworks (wireless communications)
* November 1999 – Amazon.com buys catalog of Tool Crib of the North
* December 1999 – Amazon buys a 16.6% stake in Ashford.com (luxury goods)
* January 2000 – Amazon purchases Back to Basics (classic toys catalog)
* December 2001 – Amazon.com acquires bankrupt Egghead.com for $6.1 Million
* December 2001 – Amazon.com acquires OurHouse.com
* August 2004 – Amazon.com purchases Joyo.com for $75 Million (web retailer in China)
* April 2005 – Amazon.com acquires BookSurge (printing fulfillment company)
* April 2005 – Amazon.com acquires Mobipocket.com (Parisian software company)
* June 2005 – Amazon.com acquires CustomFlix (independently produced DVDs)
*February 2006 – Amazon.com purchases Shopbop (retailer of women’s apparel)

News Corp.

In July 2005 News Corp. purchased MySpace (social networking) which instantly doubled News Corp’s internet traffic thus establishing them as one of the internet giants along with Yahoo, MSN and Google. According to Alexa, Myspace is the 6th most visited website in the world – Yahoo is first, MSN second and Google third.

News Corp. Acquisitions:

* July 2005 – News Corp. purchases Intermix Media (Myspace) for $580 Million
* September 2005 – News Corp. acquires IGN Entertainment for $650 Million
* September 2005 – News Corp purchases a majority stake (51%) in Jamba from VeriSign for $188 Million. Jamba created the Crazy Frog ringtone and News Corp will integrate the company into Fox Mobile Entertainment.

Microsoft

In September 2006 Microsoft launched Windows Live, its new search engine designed to better compete with Google. Microsoft is currently a distant third in the search market behind the leader Google and Yahoo who is in second place.

Microsoft Acquisitions:

* June 1994 – Microsoft acquires Softimage
* April 1996 – Microsoft acquires Exos, maker of video game controls
* December 1996 – Microsoft buys Netcarta for $20 Million (navigation tools for computer networks)
* 1996 – Microsoft buys Vermeer Technology which is later distributed as Microsoft FrontPage
* August 1997 – Microsoft acquires WebTV for $425 Million
* August 1997 – Microsoft buys Vxtreme (internet audio & video) for $75 Million
* April 1998 – Micosoft buys Mesa Group
* January 1998 – Microsoft acquires Hotmail.com for $400 Million
* April 1998 – Microsoft purchases FireFly Network (personalization software) for about $40 Million
* November 1998 – Microsoft purchases LinkExchange
* April 1999 – Microsoft buys Jump Networks (information manager)
* September 1999 – Microsoft acquires Visio (technical drawing software)
* October 1999 – Microsoft acquires speech software firm Entropic, Inc.
* June 2000 – Microsoft acquires Bungie Software Products (games)
* September 2000 – Microsoft acquires MongoMusic (internet music company)
* December 2000 – Microsoft buys Great Plains Software for $1.1 Billion
* January 2001 – Microsoft acquires Design Intelligence
* September 2002 – Microsoft buys Rare Ltd. (video games) for $375 Million
* October 2002 – Microsoft buys Vicinity (location tracking tech) for $96 Million
* June 2003 – Microsoft acquires GeCAD (Romanian antivirus company)
* April 2004 – Microsoft acquires ActiveViews
* December 2004 – Microsoft acquires Giant Company Software
* March 2005 – Microsoft acquires Groove Networks
* July 2005 – Microsoft buys Frontbridge (email filtering)
* September 2005 – Microsoft acquires Alacris (ID verification for smart cards)
* August 2005 – Microsoft acquires Teleo (VoIP Tech)
* November 2005 – Microsoft purchases FolderShare (online file-sharing service) for integration into Windows Live
* December 2005 – Microsoft acquires 3D Visualization firm GeoTango
* March 2006 – Microsoft acquires Onfolio (a JJ Allaire Company)
* April 2006 – Microsoft purchases Boise, Idaho business intelligence firm ProClarity
* July 2006 – Microsoft buys Winternals Software (data protection)

Lycos

Lycos was created in 1994 from a research project at Carnegie Mellon University and funded by CMGI. In 1999 Barry Diller and USA Networks made an attempt to purchase Lycos but backed down after CMGI voted against the merger due to a low valuation. Lycos was later sold to Terra for $12.5 Billion. Terra then sold Lycos just 4 years later for $105 million.

Lycos Acquisitions:

* February 1998 – Lycos purchases Tripod for $58 million
* October 1998 – Lycos acquires Wired Digital for $83 Million. Wired Digital owned HotBot, HotWired, Wired News, Webmonkey and Suck.
* September 1999 – Lycos acquires Quote.com for $78.3 Million
* May 2000 – Terra purchases Lycos for $12.5 Billion. Four years later in August 2004 Terra sells Lycos for just $105 Million to Daum Communications.
* March 2001 – Lycos Asia acquires MyRice.com (China site)

CMGI

CMGI was founded in 1986 by David Wetherell and includes the technology venture capital division called @Ventures.

CMGI Acquisitions:

* March 1999 – CMGI acquires I/PRO (web traffic verification)
* June 1999 – CMGI acquires a controlling stake in AltaVista from Compaq Computer for $2.3 Billion. Overture Services later acquires AltaVista from CMGI for $140 Million in February 2003.
* October 1999 – CMGI acquires Flycast for $690 Million
* December 1999 – CMGI acquires Yesmail.com for $523.4 Million
* February 2000 – CMGI acquires Tallan Inc. for $920 Million
* February 2000 – CMGI acquires Ubid for $407 Million
* March 2004 – CMGI acquires Modus Media for $230 Million

1998 CMGI acquires Accipiter
1999 Activerse
1999 Adforce
1999 1StUp.com
1999 Tribal Voice
2000 Raging Bull

Excite@Home

* October 1997 – Excite acquires Netbot for $35 Million
* July 1998 – Excite acquires Throw (advanced homepages with chat) for $28.2 Million
* January 1999 – @Home acquires Excite for $6.7 Billion
* August 1999 – Excite@Home invests $85 Million into Tickets.com
* October 1999 – Excite@Home acquires Blue Mountain Arts (online greeting cards) for $780 Million
* September 2000 – Excite@Home acquires Pogo.com (online games provider)
* October 1 2001 – Excite@Home files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and sells high speed network to AT&T for $307 Million

Ask Jeeves

* September 2001 – Ask Jeeves acquires Teoma
* March 2004 – Ask Jeeves acquires Interactive Search Holdings for $343 Million
* June 2004 – Ask Jeeves acquires Tukaroo (desktop search and file management)
* February 2005 – Ask Jeeves acquires Trustic/Bloglines
*March 2005 – IAC/Interactive Corp acquires Ask Jeeves for $1.85 Billion

IAC

* August 2006 – IAC purchases a 51% stake in Connected Ventures (College Humor & Busted Tees)

RealNetworks

* April 1999 – RealNetworks bought Xing Technology (MP3 software developer) for $75 Million
* January 2000 – RealNetworks acquires NetZip (internet download management software) for $268 Million
* January 2001 – RealNetworks acquires Aegisoft Corp (digital media security software) for $12 Million
* May 2002 – Sony acquires a 1% stake in RealNetworks
* April 2003 – RealNetworks purchases Listen.com (Rhapsody Music) for $36 Million
* January 2004 – RealNetworks acquires GameHouse for $35.6 Million
* May 2005 – RealNetworks acquires Mr. Goodliving (mobile games) for $15 Million

Netscape

Netscape, originally Mosaic Communications, was founded by Marc Andreessen who created the first popular graphical internet browser known as Netscape Navigator. In August 1995 Netscape became one of the first of many internet companies to go public with astronomical opening day gains. Netscape was later purchased by AOL and Marc Andreesen is now the chairman and founder of Opsware (formerly Loudcloud.)

Netscape Acquisitions:

* November 1997 – Netscape acquires Kiva Software for $179.5 Million
* November 1998 – Netscape acquires Atweb for $95 Million
* November 1998 – Netscape acquires NewHoo (freeware directory). NewHoo is the former name of the Open Directory Project at Dmoz.org.
* November 1998 – Netscape acquires AtWeb (web site management tools) for $95 Million

Earthlink/Mindspring

* September 1998 – Mindspring acquires Sprynet from rival AOL for $40 Million
* September 1999 – Earthlink & Mindspring merge to compete against AOL. At the time of the merger the combined market cap was approximately $3 Billion.
* June 2000 – EarthLink acquires OneMain.com (ISP) for $308 Million
* April 2001 – EarthLink acquires FirstWorld Internet Services from Verado
* December 2001 – Earthlink acquires OmniSky (wireless ISP) for
* October 2001 – EarthLink acquires Cidco (Mailstation) for $5 Million
* June 2002 – EarthLink acquires PeoplePC for $10 Million

Macromedia

* October 1997 – Macromedia acquires Solis (Computer Managed Instruction Software)
* November 1999 – Macromedia buys Andromedia (eMarketing Software)
* July 1999 – Macromedia purchases Elemental Software (web app development) for $24 Million
* January 2001 – Macromedia buys Allaire for $360 Million
* January 2003 – Macromedia acquires Presedia
* October 2003 – Macromedia buys eHelp
* April 2005 – Macromedia is acquired by Adobe for $3.4 Billion
* October 2005 – Macromedia buys Mobile Innovation (user interface designer)

Adobe

* April 2005 – Adobe purchases Macromedia for $3.4 Billion

AltaVista

* August 1998 – Compaq acquires the AltaVista domain name for $3.3 Million
* November 1999 – AltaVista acquires Raging Bull

Ameritrade

* July 2001 – Ameritrade buys National Discount Brokers (NDB) for $154 Million
* April 2002 – Ameritrade acquires Datek for $1.29 Billion
* July 2005 – Ameritrade acquires TD Waterhouse for $2.9 Billion and becomes TD Ameritrade

eTrade

* March 1999 – eTrade buys ClearStation, Inc. (financial news, info)
* June 2000 – E*Trade purchases Versus Technologies (online trading company)
* September 2005 – E-Trade acquires BrownCo from JP Morgan Chase for $1.6 Billion
* August 2005 – eTrade buys HarrisDirect from BMO Financial Group for $700 Million

Walt Disney

* July 1999 – Disney acquires the remaining 57% of Infoseek that it doesn’t already own for $1.62 Billion and integrates it into Go.com

CNET

* February 1999 – CNET buys AuctionGate Interactive for $5.8 Million
* July 1999 – CNET buys GDT (tech info) for $50 Million
* January 2000 – CNET acquires MySimon for $700 Million
* August 2005 – CNET purchases Metacritic
* December 2005 – CNET purchases Consumating

Other Key Dates in Online Media & Internet Consolidation

* November 1998 – Broadcast.com acquires Simple Network Communications (net hosting services) $20.75 Million
* July 2001 – USA Networks acquires 37 million shares of Expedia from Microsoft worth $1.8 Billion. Microsoft holds a 3% stake in USA Networks under the deal.
* March 2000 – Verisign acquires Network Solutions for $21 Billion. When the acquisition was announced shares of Network Solutions (NSI) jumped 13% ($46) to $407.38. Verisign’s shares fell 19% ($47) to $200.
* June 2000 – eToys acquires eParties for $1.6 Million
* May 2001 – KB Toys acquires eToys’ trademark and logo for $3.35 Million
* June 2004 – aQuantive buys Razorfish for $160 Million
* December 2004 – Washington Post acquires Slate.com
* January 2005 – Six Apart buys LiveJournal from Danga Interactive
* February 2005 – WebSideStory acquires Atomz (content management) for $39 Million
* February 2005 – The NY Times acquires About.com from Primedia for $410 Million
* March 2005 – Hewlett Packard acquires Snapfish (digital photography)
* October 2006 – Conde Nast Publications purchases Boston based Reddit

Tickers Mentioned

OPSW, YHOO, GOOG, EBAY, NWS, ELNK, MSFT, AMZN, CMGI, IACI, AMTD, NYT, AQNT