Hearst Buys Youth Social Networking Company eCrush
Hearst has finally made a move in the online M&A market, after its venture arm has been investing heavily in digital media startups (Sling Media, Brightcove and others): it has bought out teen and youth focused social networking company eCrush. Terms were not disclosed, but Hearst said the company had an EBITDA of $1.4 million in 2006. The Chicago-based company runs flagship eCrush.com (“a way for users to find out anonymously if someone they like feels the same about them”), eSpin, HighSchoolStyleBoard, among others. eCrush was launched in 1999, and positions itself as an “advertiser-friendly, PG-13 environment”...Hearst will use the expertise across its stable of teen magazine and standalone sites.
Also, later this month Hearst will debut MyPromShopper.com, a prom-planning destination site with elements of social networking built in. In February, Hearst will relaunch its three teen magazines – CosmoGirl.com, Seventeen.com, and Teenmag.com.
More details on the deal here.
Posted In: Media & Publishing, Magazines, Social Media, Companies, Hearst
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Comments (3)
Jan 8, 2007 10:09 PM
‘Bout time Hearst got to rockin’ on the web. They should take a look at BeautyRiot.com.
Feb 27, 2007 11:41 AM
Another site to look at and actually one of the best hairstyle picture galleries on the Web is Hairstylesdesign.com. They have become one of the biggest hair styles site`s on the web.
Sep 17, 2007 9:24 AM
Social Networks has been a good commodity last year. We have seen many investments and several acquisitions of Social Networks in 2006.
Advertising Networks are the hottest commodity of 2007. Acquisitions of over $4 billion has taken place this year.