NBC Universal Acquires iVillage

Posted on March 6, 2006

NBC Universal has acquired iVillage, a women's website, in a $600 million deal. iVillage has 14 million unique users with content channels that cover women's interests, including Health & Well-Being, Entertainment and Beauty & Style.

"iVillage immediately gives us scale and a profitable, established platform to expand our digital efforts, especially in the rapidly growing areas of health and women's interests," said Beth Comstock, President, NBC Universal Digital Media and Market Development. "This is all about creating important new intersections between community, content and commerce. We envision connecting more deeply online, on mobile and on demand with key consumers throughout their various life stages -- from their unique interests to their finances to their health and well-being. We are also looking to create a more customized consumer healthcare experience, working in association with GE Healthcare."

Now that iVillage has been acquired BusinessWeek provides a look at which websites might be next. The possibilities include theknot.com, CNET and Facebook.

Now that iVillage is snapped up, the question becomes: who's next? Medium-sized sites such as theknot.com, an online wedding planner, will be much in demand because they dominate niches on the Web. Other sites that are attracting attention include tech-news destination CNET and a host of social-networking sites such as www.facebook.com.

Valuations could continue to climb. As the MySpace and iVillage deals showed, big media companies are willing to spend significant amounts of money for sites that give them advantage in the increasingly important world of the Web.

Media companies are on a buying spree as they try and acquire more online real estate to offer to advertisers.



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