[Infowarrior] - Cond é Nast Buys Wired News

[Richard Forno]

Condé Nast Buys Wired News
http://wired.com/news/technology/internet/1,71366-0.html
By Wired News Staff 17:00 PM Jul, 11, 2006

Lycos is selling its Wired News unit to Condé Nast Publications for $25
million, Lycos parent Daum Communications announced in Korea late Tuesday, a
deal that brings Wired.com and Wired magazine under the same owner after an
eight-year separation.

Lycos acquired Wired News as part of its June 1999 acquisition of Wired
Digital in a stock transaction valued at about $83 million at the time.
Since then, Wired News has published Wired magazine articles on the web
under a contractual relationship, while reporting independently on
technology and science news.

Tuesday's deal includes all the assets of Wired News, such as the website,
news content and domain name, but leaves Lycos in control of former Wired
Digital properties such as HotBot, Hotwired and Webmonkey. Upon completion
of the transaction, the assets of Wired News will be operated as part of
Condé Nast Publications' web division, CondéNet. No layoffs at Wired News
are planned as a result of the deal.

"We are thrilled to be bringing Wired News back into the fold after eight
years of separation from the print publication, especially since it comes at
a time of exploding growth and creativity on the web," said Steve Newhouse,
chairman of the Advance.net web division of Advance Publications, the
privately held parent company of Condé Nast, in a joint statement with
Lycos, also released Tuesday.

Net ad revenues reached a new record of $3.9 billion for the first quarter
of 2006, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported in May, up 38 percent
over the same period last year, and up 6 percent over the 2005 fourth
quarter total of $3.6 billion. According to TNS Media Intelligence, internet
display advertising grew faster than for any other medium in the first
quarter of the year, rising 19.4 percent to $2.31 billion -- though its
report did not account for paid search listings, a category that has fueled
meteoric growth at web darling Google. Total advertising expenditures for
the same period grew just 5.2 percent, the research firm said, reaching
$34.9 billion.

After an initially slow start courting the net, Condé Nast has begun to
explore new ways to position its wide stable of popular magazines -- such as
Vogue, W, Gourmet and Condé Nast Traveler, among others -- on the web. In
April, the company added to its stable of destination sites, launching
Brides.com, a web portal that combines three of its bridal magazine titles
and offers various web-only interactive features. It has also adopted a web
portal model for Epicurious (food), Concierge.com (travel) and Style.com
(fashion).

For Lycos, the sale represents the latest effort to streamline and
reposition following a $95 million December 2004 buyout by Korea-based
internet service provider Daum. The company, best known as an internet
search provider before the dot-com bubble burst, has since sold off various
assets, including its Quote.com financial site, and is now focusing on
developing broadband TV and community content services.

"Lycos is one of the most widely recognized internet brands in the world,
and my goal is to continue to reinvigorate the Lycos brand," said Alfred
Tolle, CEO of Lycos and president of Daum Global, in a statement. "This deal
allows us to focus entirely on building out Lycos as an entertainment
broadband destination."

Wired News is the heir to Hotwired.com, a news and opinion site launched by
Wired magazine under the stewardship of founder Louis Rossetto more than a
decade ago. The site is widely credited as an innovative web pioneer, but it
has also struggled, suffering cutbacks and several rounds of layoffs, most
recently last summer.

In a statement Tuesday, Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson said that
reuniting Wired News with the magazine was a long-cherished goal.

"Wired's focus on innovation and how technology is changing the world can
now be matched with our own innovation and experimentation with new ways of
doing media online. We're bursting with ideas and can't wait to put them
into practice," he said.