• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

CBS Interactive (GameSpot parent company) buys Giant Bomb

S

snoopeasystreet

Member
CONFIRMED!!!!!
In a deal that was just signed, longtime Silicon Valley exec Shelby Bonnie has sold his social publishing start-up, Whiskey Media, to Santa Monica-based entertainment and interactive production company BermanBraun.

As part of the deal, BermanBraun will get three key sites of San Francisco-based Whiskey, including video entertainment-focused Screened, tech-testing site Tested and Anime Vice, which covers anime and manga comics. It will also acquire Whiskey’s content publishing platform.

Two other sites owned by Whiskey — games-oriented Giant Bomb and comic book database Comic Vine — will be sold to another media company, which is rumored to be CBS Interactive.

Heaped on top of the niche content, aimed at passionate fans, Whiskey mixes in a lot of social networking, as well as user-generated content, along with its professional fare.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

But the major reason for the acquisition is that BermanBraun — which also makes popular sites for large portals such as Microsoft’s MSN (the Wonderwall celebrity site and Glo, aimed at the women’s lifestyle arena) and AOL (upcoming sites on weather, men and pets) — needs to be able to scale its online content production. The Whiskey platform should be able to allow it to more easily grown and create new sites more quickly, as well as mine data across them.

“With the addition of Whiskey’s first rate team and powerful, state of the art publishing, data and social tools platform, we will be able to further enhance our user experience and engagement, and provide our advertising partners with unparalleled data insights,” said Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman, who run BermanBraun, in a statement. “One of the other great parts of this acquisition is that we will have Shelby Bonnie in our lives. We have enormous respect for Shelby personally and professionally, and his insights, relationships and acumen will be invaluable to us.”

Bonnie, who was once CEO of CNET, which he helped found, added: “I have had the pleasure of knowing both Lloyd and Gail for years and they are two incredibly high integrity people who bring passion and creativity to the interactive space. As we see a dramatic changes in the whole media landscape, success will demand new skills and talents. BermanBraun’s content skills and vision joined with the Whiskey platform will create a combination that I believe is without equal. I couldn’t be more excited for the combination.”
Click to expand...

Source

CBS interactive own metacritic, gamefaqs and gamespot. Also, John Davidson is one of the heads over there now (I think).
 
E

EmCeeGramr

Member
Tested and Giant Bomb owned by different companies
Click to expand...

ZEUBL.gif
 
D

Dany

Banned
This is fucking chaos. I don't know what to think. This better mean good news for all of the whiskey small sites that they are breaking up, I HOPE this does not change the way Giantbomb functions
 
F

Foliorum Viridum

Banned
I don't like the idea of Tested and GB being split.

I like the idea even less of CBS owning GB. They fucked with Gamespot back in the day so it's hard to imagine GB being the same site now.

It will be interesting to hear what they say. My initial reaction is this sucks. I trust them to be honest though so I'll reserve full judgement...
 
L

LCfiner

Member
breaking up tested and GB seems like a bad idea regarding quality of content.

is it possible to have two owners fort hose brands and still have them work together as they do now?
 
Dlacy13g

Dlacy13g

Member
I actually am nervous for the Giant Bomb guys. CBS Interactive could turn Giant Bomb into the very thing the guys their tried so hard not to create.
 
S

smr00

Banned
I wouldn't care, they would get more money to do more stuff.

People automatically assume if you are owned by some big company you have no morals and that you can be bought from game publishers, bullshit.

People need to stop being so stupid.
 
L

LuchaShaq

Banned
Honestly this is basically the worst news that doesn't involve bodily harm or loss of a job.

CBS is run by a bunch of incompetent scumbags and have proven so over and over again.
 
P

parasight

Member
:(

Not happy about most of this. Splitting up Tested & GiantBomb. Having GB owned by the same guys who own GameFAQs and Gamespot. Ugh.
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
smr00 said:
I wouldn't care, they would get more money to do more stuff.

People automatically assume if you are owned by some big company you have no morals and that you can be bought from game publishers, bullshit.

People need to stop being so stupid.
Click to expand...

Considering that's exactly what happened to create giant bomb in the first place...
 
I

inky

Member
This might become as h̶i̶l̶a̶r̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ sad as Jeff Green going to Popcap to run away from EA, lol. =(
 
K

KuwabaraTheMan

Banned
smr00 said:
I wouldn't care, they would get more money to do more stuff.

People automatically assume if you are owned by some big company you have no morals and that you can be bought from game publishers, bullshit.

People need to stop being so stupid.
Click to expand...

You're aware that this would mean that Giant Bomb would be owned by the same people who fired Jeff and caused them to found the site in the first place, right? It's not just a case of them being bought out. They're being bought out by the same people they tried to get away from.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[GI.biz] Fandom acquires GameSpot, Metacritic and Giant Bomb, other sites
24
2K
Brute replied
Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision, Interested in Buying Tik-Tok
2 3
143
7K
Gameplay Gods Bless replied
[Game Informer] Inside The Mind Of PlayStation Studios' Hermen Hulst
1
2K
wipeout364 replied
Microsoft Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy TikTok in U.S. - Bloomberg
2
81
7K
GeorgPrime replied
Wired: Xbox Has Always Chased Power. That's Not Enough Anymore. (Exclusive interview with the Xbox team)
2 3
129
17K
D.Final replied
Top Bottom