Gamespot, CNet Bought by CBS

Acquisition worth $1.8 Billion

Gamespot and your other favorite CNet sites will soon be part of a larger media empire.

Today CBS President Leslie Moonves announced he would offer $1.8 billion in cash to buy CNet Networks and include all of their holdings, including Gamespot, as part of the CBS media empire. That empire includes the CBS network, 29 owned and operated television stations, 140 CBS Radio stations, and other various cable ventures.

There’s no word on the acquisition on Gamespot.com’s News section today.

With this news and given CBS’s vast media resources, you have to wonder if a full-fledged CNet channel could be on the way to compete with G4. Given CNet’s stance as one of the top 10 sites visited daily and CBS’s advertising woes (as it is very difficult to listen to a CBS O&Oed radio station these days without hearing ads begging you to buy time), this may be the first step toward expanding the CNet brand while generating additional revenue for the Tiffany network.