As CEO of CNET Networks, Ashe helped engineer the sale of the tech media company to CBS with impeccable timing—selling in mid-2008 for $1.8 billion ahead of the market shift. He spent six years at CNET, including the last two as CEO while the public company was under tremendous pressure. He managed the integration into CBS Interactive, sticking through his original commitment to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves into what he called “an operating job.”

This new job promises a mix as Walmart pushes ahead with what CEO Mike Duke calls “a long-term vision to win.” Walmart has yet to achieve the kind of success with digital content that some think it should have. His background at CNET and CBS could be a major plus.

Working for Walmart (the job is effective immediately) marks the first time Ashe has been on the retail side but his last two jobs included international aspects, something Walmart played up in the late Monday announcement.

He joined the board of LivingSocial during his break, so is familiar with the volatile daily deal space. LivingSocial’s investors include e-tailer Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), among Walmart’s largest online competitors.

FilmOn says it will be offering the content in partnership with XOS Digital, a company that provides digital asset management services to college sports organizations. It already offers its own sports on-demand service, XOS Sports, in which it offers paid rentals and full downloads of college games.

FilmOn’s channels, already live, offer viewers live games as well as archived fixtures. Users also have the option of recording programs to watch later either over TV, Internet or mobile devices using iOS or Android apps, or to subscribe to HD versions of the channels for a monthly fee. FilmOn offers a combination of free channels and those that require a subscription to watch.

It’s not clear just how extensive FilmOn’s coverage of NCAA fixtures will be—will it include the championships and all divisions?—or how FilmOn’s services work in conjunction with other rights deals between the NCAA and other media outlets: ESPN (NYSE: DIS), for example, extended its rights for NCAA Basketball in the U.S. and internationally earlier this month. That deal included both broadcast and streaming rights.

We have contacted FilmOn for further clarification and will update this post as we learn more.

At the very least, the equal content offering seems to be something that FilmOn is trying to exploit for its own marketing purposes: “We are going head to head with the industry’s top sports programmers,” the company’s outspoken founder Alki David boasts in the news release announcing the deal.

Frankfurt-based, UK/Beverly Hills-operated FilmOn has steadily been building up its catalog of premium sports content: earlier this year the company launched an international soccer channel with the UK Premiership and the Football Association, which will kick off (pun!) with football games from the Russian Premier League.

Last year, it came under some controversy when it was accused by the four major broadcasters in the U.S. of violating copyright by showing their programs. It was served at the time with a temporary restraining order. It then fought back against CBS and CNET with suits of its own (later dropped “put on hold” until November, David tells us.)

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UK-based FilmOn also claims that it has reached the number-one spot on the “European” Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) App Store with its free iPhone and iPad app. Recently it has additionally launched an HDi player, available as a free download on its site.

FilmOn says it has deals with some 120 content providers for its service, with Paramount, Associated Press and Bloomberg among the bigger names. Although it offers a fair whack of free content—including several terrestrial channels in the UK—it also has around 120 subscription and pay-per-view channels on offer.

No stats offered today on takeup of those services, although now that the company is listed we may start to see more transparent reporting on these details.

In July, FilmOn dropped a lawsuit it had filed against CBS’s tech site CNET, after finding only six examples of the content that it claimed CNET infringed by distributing Limewire file-sharing software. FilmOn founder Alki David says he is preparing a further action against CBS (NYSE: CBS), with which it has been sparring over unlicensed content since last year.

The initial market capitalization for FilmOn’s current listing is €43 million ($62 million). That’s a far cry from the €500 million valuation it had when it first listed in 2009. Between then and now the company has been personally funded by David, a producer, actor and musician.

The company says it will be buying back shares sold in 2009 from any investor, taking 10 percent interest paid on the price at which the stock was bought.

David had sued CBS and CNET, saying that CNET’s Download.com had facilitated the distribution of Limewire, a popular file-sharing program that was hit by an injunction last year. In May, Limewire and its creator, Mark Gorton, agreed to pay $105 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the major record labels against the service.

David, a producer, actor and musician, has a history of bad blood with CBS. His company, UK-based FilmOn, was sued by CBS and other major networks after he started broadcasting their programming over the internet without a license. Last November, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the company.

One month later, David lashed out at CBS in a YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) video, saying “we’re not going anywhere, we’re going to fight you,” and calling senior company executives including CBS CEO Les Moonves, “a bunch of hypocritical, thieving liars.”

In May, David made good on his threat and sued CBS, which dismissed the lawsuit, calling it “a desperate attempt to distract copyright holders like us from continuing our rightful claims.” Monday, David dropped the suit, as first reported by Wired.com.

But David isn’t done. In the court filling, David said he has been approached by “numerous artists and other copyright owners” about joining the lawsuit. As a result, the plaintiffs intend to “substantially expand and change the current suit” and “proceed on the basis of the amended suit instead of the current complaint.”

Related

• Alki David Copyright Suit Against CNET Has Only One Movie, Five Songs
• FilmOn Founder Alki David Sues CBS, CNET
• FilmOn To CBS: 'We'll Fight You Hypocritical, Thieving Liars'
• Limewire Case Settles, Mid-Trial, For $105 Million

Even six infringed works can amount to sizeable copyright damages, since awards can range up to $150,000 per infringed work. But if the judge is interested in seeing some evidence about the market for these works, it’s hard to imagine he’ll allow damage figures like that to ever be awarded. And of course, the plaintiffs might not win at all.

David has a history with CBS. His company, FilmOn, was sued by CBS and other major U.S. television networks after he started broadcasting TV over the open internet without a license. A federal judge quickly shut down FilmOn’s unauthorized broadcasts.

But David seems to have kept a grudge against CBS. He’s accused CBS of hypocrisy. David’s theory is that because CBS owns CNET—which was the main distributor of the Limewire file-sharing software—CBS has made a major contribution to online piracy. (Limewire’s software has now been banned and the service was shut down by a court injunction—but it was perfectly legal to use Limewire until last year, as long as the use didn’t break copyright law.) While he originally floated the idea of a class-action lawsuit against CBS, his current suit has several named plaintiffs but is not seeking class-action status.

CBS told Wired.com, which reported on this filing earlier today, that it is “confident that we will prevail” in the lawsuit. Lawyers for David didn’t return calls.

Limewire and its founder recently agreed to pay the major record labels a $105 million settlement to remedy the copyright infringement that Limewire was found to have illegally encouraged. The idea of piling on to Limewire while it was on the ropes legally isn’t actually a bad one, from a strictly economic viewpoint—the music publishers did it with some success, after all.

But with a list of one movie and five songs—and the movie isn’t exactly an Academy Award winner—David and his lawyers don’t have a lot to work with here.

Interestingly, several of the plaintiffs named in the complaint have no works listed at all, including De’Angelo Holmes, Anthony Round, Corey Johnson, and Jonathan Shinhoster. Those plaintiffs may have to drop off the case if they can’t produce valid copyright registrations (or pending copyright applications).

The full list of works follows. Only Fishtales is registered at the copyright office; the others have their registrations pending. (Not having a registration number yet doesn’t mean one can’t file a lawsuit.) 

»  Fishtales, a movie directed by Alki David

»  She a Star, a song by Denton Bendross

»  Run Da Yard, a song by Jeffrey Thompkins

»  Topless, a song by Diamond Smith, Spectacular Smith, Joseph Smith, and Emmanuel DeAnda (a.k.a. Pretty Ricky)

»  Tipsy in Dis Club, a song by the same artists as Topless.

»  Sex Drive, a song by Dennis Round.

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• FilmOn Founder Alki David Sues CBS, CNET
• FilmOn To CBS: 'We'll Fight You Hypocritical, Thieving Liars'
• Broadcasters Round On TV Streaming Site FilmOn
• Limewire Case Settles, Mid-Trial, For $105 Million

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What does CBS’ ownership of Download.com have to do with its dispute with FilmOn? On the face of it, not much. But since his lawsuit against the TV networks floundered, David has seemed particularly obsessed with CBS, which he has accused of being run by “thieving, hypocritical liars.”

A CBS spokeswoman responded to David’s suit by noting CBS’ win in the FilmOn case last year, and added: “This latest move by Mr. David is a desperate attempt to distract copyright holders like us from continuing our rightful claims. His lawsuit against CBS affiliates is riddled with inaccuracies, and we are confident that we will prevail, just as we did in the injunction hearing involving his company.”

Limewire, for those who don’t know, was one of the most popular peer-to-peer file-sharing systems from about 2006 until it was shut down by court order late last year, after it was found liable for encouraging users to break copyright law. (Perhaps not coincidentally, a jury trial began yesterday which will determine how much money Limewire has to pay to record labels.)

Alki, who is an actor, has joined together with a group of artists, mainly R&B and hip hop musicians, to file this lawsuit against Limewire. But they didn’t stop there; they’re also suing CNET and its parent company CBS, saying that CNET’s Download.com site must bear some responsibility, as the main distributor of Limewire, a piece of software that was ruled illegal by a federal judge last year. According to Alki’s lawsuit, more than 220 million internet users acquired Limewire from Download.com, representing more than 95 percent of all copies of Limewire in use worldwide. CNET makes money from Download.com both through advertising and also by offering “Premium” accounts to some software publishers.

The idea of creating an artist-driven pile-on to Limewire might be effective; after all, publishing companies already did that and quickly scored a settlement. But dragging CBS and CNET into the Limewire mess just for distributing the software seems like a much higher hurdle. The thing is, peer-to-peer distribution is simply a very efficient method of moving data; and file-sharing software has many perfectly legal uses. Limewire only “became” illegal after a judge reviewed the evidence, and found that the company running Limewire had done a variety of things that actually encouraged users to break copyright laws. (The legal term here is “inducement.”)

Some of the points raised about CNET’s involvement in distributing Limewire:

»  The lawsuit at least implies that CNET had direct involvement in developing Limewire’s most copyright-infringing features. The lawsuit claims, without providing much detail, that “for each version of Limewire, for example, Download.com staff corresponded with the Limewire Defendants’ representatives regarding the features in the client program.” If CNET staffers were actually asking Limewire for features that had the specific purpose of making it easier to break copyright law, that could be a real problem; but if Alki and his lawyers have evidence like that, it isn’t in this complaint.

»  The lawsuit claims that CNET editors performed speed tests to see how effective Limewire’s software was, and downloaded copyrighted material as part of that speed test. The lawsuit describes a CNET video review this way: “As the viewer looks at the screen demonstrating a sample search, they see a list of copyrighted works, including those from several well-known musical artists. In the same video, Defendants admit that they downloaded files generated by these searches to test the speeds that Limewire could deliver for users.” But unless the downloads by CNET editors were files actually copyrighted by the plaintiffs in this suit, it’s hard to see how this matters much; remember, Limewire will already have to pay record labels as a result of the damages trial going on this week.

»  Other gripes are basically with how CNET handled editorial on the site. FOr example, it gave the Limewire software four and a half stars out of five; it continues to provide access to software like FrostWire, which one CNET user described as “practically indistinguishable” from LimeWire; and the CNET editor who wrote the Limewire review stated that peer-to-peer software “is primarily used for copyright infringement.” But complaints like this raise a free speech problem—CNET and other news outlets do need to be able to talk about software, even if it is illegal software.

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• FilmOn CEO Alki David Loopier Than Ever In New Video
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He will report to CFO Joseph Ianniello, not CEO Leslie Moonves, but Moonves has been a fan of Lurie’s since the 2008 CNET acquisition. Lurie will continue his CBSi roles while a search is being conducted for his successor. What to expect? Lurie talked to paidContent about M&A possibilities,  the NCAA deal, staying at CBS and more.

—On M&A: CBS spent billions building its interactive group—much of it in large chunk when it acquired CNET—but between integration and market conditions, has slowed down considerably. Will that rev up again? “We’re well positioned to continue to invest and be aggressive in this new world order,” Lurie said. “We’re aggressively pursuing and evaluating all the opportunities. ... there is nothing that is new and growing that we’re not in dialog with on commercial partnerships, potential business combinations, anything. If it can extend our business, we’re by no means limited by capital or wherewithal. It’s just being smart and focused” Lurie attributes part of that ability to be aggressive to what he calls “the most successful integration” of a new media company with an established one.

—NCAA impact: At CBSi, Lurie was well informed but on the periphery of the $10.8 billion NCAA deal with Turner Broadcasting that was managed by CBS Sports President Sean McManus. Now he’ll be involved in figuring out the impact of the decision for Turner to get digital control of March Madness on Demand instead of CBSSports.com. Lurie: “This new announcement is a massive deal that affects sports, affects rights, affects networks, interactive and now that we’ve got another huge partner in the mix, there are going to be a lot of internal discussions with them and with us figure out the optimal strategy for both the network and the online distribution strategy.”

—Staying at CBS: Lurie and Ashe have stuck at CBS longer than some might have expected given how often the glowing words of praise from a CEO or the acquired execs fade in the light of reality. “Sometimes in the Valley, there’s this feeling of once you get acquired you don’t want to stay there,” says Lurie. Again, he attributes that to the integration—the way it was handled at the top and the way they were allowed to manage it at CBSi. “Les has gone full throttle behind this.” (Granted, he might not feel so positive about it if he were one of the CBS people who wound up on the outside.) As for his relationship with Ashe from here out, “if anything, we’ll be connected at the hip.”

Lurie also can skip the learning curve an exec new to CBS or to CBSi would have in his place. He’s already worked with key execs across the company. “I’m coming from a position where I don’t need to break glass and I don’t need to beat my chest. I can get in and offer people help on the business initiatives they have.” He’ll also be pushing to get them in front of new opportunities. What role would Lurie play in a CBS iPad player? “It would be key. Anything that touches content is something that’s close to Leslie’s heart.” Networks produces the shows; CBSi is responsible for digital distribution. He would be the go-between internally but also be “central” in putting deals together with the device makers, distribution companies and more. Is there a player cominig? No announcements on that or anything like it today.

—CBS Audience Network: One of the key decisions Smith and Moonves made in terms of online video was to stay out of Hulu as either an equity partner or a programmer, opting instead to form the CBS Audience Network. What happens to that now? “One of the things we’ve been proud of at CBS is we’ve controlled the merchandising of our content and the selling of ads against our content. The Audience Network has been a great vehicle for getting more users access to content where they are and whether we dial that up or dial that back continues to be an issue we will evaluate.”

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• Quincy Smith Leaving CBS In January; Signs Multi-Year Deal As Adviser
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»  Moonves: improvement has been very steady, very real. ... Q2 better than Q1, Q3 better than Q2. Signs of recovery gathering steam.

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»  Moonves: Authentication (whatever you call it) puts us ‘on a track towards closer economic parity online and on air.’

»  Ianniello: will continue to “prune” mid-level radio stations; acquisitions face ‘higher hurdle’

»  Moonves re buying: If there are some tuck-ins that work with internet group that are profitable, which our internet biz is, we will do that

»  Moonves on #upfront: We expect to sell 65-ish%, about 10 points less than last year. Scatter up 30%. Cash for clunkers real shot in the arm

Asked for more color about advertising, Moonves said CBS is encouraged as the upfront nears that the scatter market is returning. “It is returning at good CPM values and you know, we’re very pleased by what we’re getting.” He said it was too soon to tell about Q3 cancellations, but the second was “rather normal.” CFO Fred Reynolds added during another exchange: “I think what you’re seeing now is most companies feel more comfortable taking a little more risk, and therefore, willing to spend their advertising dollars. We clearly are a leading indicator.”

—ABC-Hulu: During Q&A, Moonves brushed off the suggestion that the addition of Disney (NYSE: DIS) to the Hulu joint venture of NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), would impact either the value of TV.com or CBC online video strategy: “We have had a different strategy than some of our competitors. we have had a different strategy than some of our competitors. TV.com is doing extremely well. We like the ability to control our own content, where and when it goes. We don’t like the idea of being exclusive to Hulu.” But, he added, “It is not so say that you won’t one day see CBS content on Hulu or Hulu content on TV.com.”

What he wasn’t asked about—and what he didn’t address—was the status of TV.com’s current tussle with Hulu over the distribution deal the two made before CNET was acquired with the TV site. Hulu yanked its content after the TV.com relaunch, claiming contractual issues.

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Like the showman that he is, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves—under fire by a lot of critics but supported publicly by Sumner Redstone—talked about the problems, then tried to focus on internal trends suggesting the second half of 2009 will be better.

About those comps: It wasn’t just the decline in advertising competitors are facing; Q108 included political spending, lower production costs because of the writers’ strike, and a benefit from a change in CSI distribution. CBS says it benefited from the “positive impact” of acquiring CNET Networks, higher affiliate and home entertainment fees, and $75 million in cost cutting. But the impact of CNET overall on CBS isn’t that easy to unpeel, at least financially.

CBS Interactive revenue nearly tripled with the acquisition of CNET—to $133.6 million from $52.9 million. If CBS owned CNET during Q108, though, comparable revenue would be down 5 percent; it’s not completely apples-apples but that’s still better than some interactive divisions at other companies that break out numbers for interactive groups. The Disney (NYSE: DIS) Interactive Media Group, which was down 17 percent, and Fox Interactive Media (NYSE: NWS), down 11 percent. Unlike CBS, neither group includes revenue from broadcast network sites. 

Operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) also showed an uptick to $8.2 million from $1.1 million. But—on paper—CBS Interactive still lost money— $11.6 million compared with $2.7 million, attributed to depreciation and amortization expenses related to CNET.

CBS is still selling the $1.8 billion acquisition of CNET Networks, one of the last big media deals before the poor economy kicked in. The integration of the formerly public company with the interactive properties of CBS has gone fairly smoothly for a media merger and the company continues to tout traffic growth and its ability to cut costs. Moonves highlighted growth in total monthly uniques—up 20 percent over since CNET was acquired; it has moved up a notch in the comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) Media Metrix top internet propoerties and the expansion and relaunch of TV.com also has helped it break into the top 10 for video viewers as well. (Just imagine what the numbers might be with Hulu’s content, which was yanked soon after the redesign.)

Earnings release | Webcast

At its peak in 2006, Second Life had a story on the cover of Business Week, a 12-page spread in Wired, and numerous blog posts about brands like Coca-Cola, Scion and even the NBA establishing in-world presences. Reuters, CNET, CNN and Wired also set up virtual news bureaus, though all but CNN killed off their in-world coverage about a year later; their stories also shifted from paens to diatribes about how advertisers were “wasting millions” in the virtual world. “It was a typical hype-and-backlash scenario,” Glaser writes. “Some journalists simply tired of SL, as so many people tried it and then bailed because of its steep learning curve and high technological requirements.”

Now most of the news in and around Second Life is pushed into the tech or gaming sections of mainstream publications, or from devoted blogs like Wagner James Au’s New World Notes and the long-running Second Life Herald. Meanwhile, organizations are increasingly using Second Life for distance learning and virtual tradeshows as opposed to marketing; parent company Linden Labs rolled out the Second Life Grid, which organizations like IBM, Stanford and NASA have used to create their own private worlds within Second Life.

So what does this have to do with Twitter? Twitter’s hype has reached a fever pitch. Celebrities including Britney Spears and Shaquille O’Neal Tweet regularly, and with stories on CNN, in the WSJ and the NYT, among others, it’s garnering about half as much news coverage as Facebook, with barely a tenth of Facebook’s traffic (via VentureBeat). Flush with $35 million in new funding (and still no business model yet), Twitter could be headed for an incredible backlash. As Rob Hoff, the Business Week editor who penned the Second Life cover story, told Glaser: “This kind of cycle is endemic to journalism, for better or worse: Build ‘em up, tear ‘em down.”

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“Hulu has contractual rights with regards to our relationship with tv.com and we are exercising those rights. Out of respect for their confidentiality, we will not disclose our discussions.”

Instead, Hulu apparently would rather have everyone speculate about the reasons and wonder if it’s some kind of virus that will spread to other partnerships. You would think that if a change of ownership could trigger it, that would have happened months ago when CNET Networks merged with CBS (NYSE: CBS). A lot of emphasis is being made on TV.com’s newly competitive efforts to become a video destination. It’s hard to tell what role that plays, especially since the NBC Universal-News Corp (NYSE: NWS). JV was built on a split model of creating a portal and distributing the bulk of its content to competing portals. Meanwhile, at last check, TV.com continues to promote shows users can’t watch—without an explanation.

Update: A little more clarity although not from anyone who can talk on the record and not confirmed by Hulu or CBS—sounds like the material change Hulu is claiming is related to the TV.com relaunch. From one perspective, it’s an effort to push CBS towards including its own content in a re-configured deal with Hulu. More as warranted.

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—Combining Sports, Games and Music properties into a single group led by Steve Snyder. Tom Jones will be moving over from CNET to head-up the sales efforts for this group. Jason Kint, Rich Calacci, Jaci Hays, Kevin Menard, Felix Miller, Doug Schmidt and others will report to Steve and to Tom.

— Moving its lifestyle properties, CHOW and UrbanBaby, to the Entertainment group (TV.com, CBS.com, The CBS Audience Network and TheInsider.com). This group will continue to be led by Anthony Soohoo with sales led by Ken Lagana.

—The Technology & News division will bring CBSNews.com and CNET News.com into a single CBS Interactive News Groupm but each site will maintain its own brand identity (unlike what I suspected and like what Staci predicted). The unit is led by Mark Larkin, with Dan Farber as Editor-in-Chief ... the two sites will share content and collaborate on stories.

—Bringing together its marketing functions into a new group called CBS Interactive Marketing led by Mickey Wilson.

—Bringing together all of its biz dev activities, led by Mike Marquez. This group will responsible for the development of all new partnerships, investments, and acquisitions (which Leslie Moonves said earlier this week they weren’t likely to do for some time to come).

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CBSNews.com did do some layoffs a year ago, slicing its staff by 15-20 employees, roughly 30 percent, among other smaller cuts. The CBSNews.com site has been among the smallest efforts from any TV news division, and now that CNET brought with it a better online infrastructure and a great domain name with News.com, likely they will finally capitalize on it and broaden the mandate beyond tech.

CBS CEO Les Moonves earlier today mentioned at the UBS conference that he wouldn’t make the same CNET deal in the current environment. “The CNET deal was in May.…Life was very different. We would not be doing that acquisition today.” (To be clear, Moonves was referring specifically to the valuation of the CNET deal; he affirmed his belief in the acquisition itself.)

More as we have more. We couldn’t reach West Coast CBS Interactive PR for comment tonight ...

Staci adds: I could be off target but I don’t see the CBS News brand disappearing online anytime soon—or at all—even if it’s produced by a merged newsroom. News.com is a terrific domain that could be an umbrella for all news with a major marketing assist, among other things. Here’s what CBSi CEO Quincy Smith had to say about it when the acquisition closed in June: “With News.com you really have a chance to blow things up (but) I want to be sensitive to the fact that News.com is the pre-eminent place for tech news to date. We don’t want to disturb that. We want to learn what they’ve done in technology and make sure that if we go into more categories like sports, gossip, we start getting smarter about (getting into new verticals) in a major way.”

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• @ UBS Media Week: Moonves: CBS Wouldn't Buy CNET In This Market; 'Highly Doubt' Any Acquisitions
• CBS's New New Interactive Unit: Quincy As CEO; Ashe As President; More Changes
• CBS Interactive Reorganizes Under Pressure To Show Results
• CBS Cuts At Local Stations And National News; Includes Online
• CBS Interactive Trims Staff, Cuts At CBS.com, CBSNews.com
• More On CBS Interactive Layoffs: StarTrek.com Team Vaporized
• Industry Moves: Patrick Keane Out Of CBS Interactive Position

Update: As I mentioned above, despite his take on acquisitions now, Moonves still likes the $1.8 billion CNET acquisition and said the Q4 data will back him up. “We took money from old media (selling TV and radio stations) and bought new media. ... The execution has been terrific.” Asked if sales are meeting expectations, he replied:  “Considering the marketplace, they are sort of what my expectations were ... The numbers are pretty impressive considering the marketplace, too.” (CBS Interactive is now being broken out as a unit for earnings, which should make it easier to gauge the merger’s performance.)

—On Hulu and streaming video: Moonves talked up the CBS Audience Network and the CBS Interactive emphasis on syndication. “We feel like syndicating our product is the best way,” He said he expected “eventually” that CBS would have a deal with Hulu; TV.com, acquired with CNET, is already a Hulu partner. Only 2 percent of revenue comes from streaming full episodes.

—Moonves on Leno: “I will bet anybody who would like to bet that CSI: Miami on Monday night at 10 o’clock will beat Jay by a lot. Remember that, by a lot.” Unlike NBC, CBS is doing well with its dramas.

Who else will be leaving the company soon? Likely some more senior execs on the digital side…

Related

• Updated: CBS's New New Interactive Unit: Quincy As CEO; Ashe As President; More Changes
• Keane Keen on CBS Interactive
• Industry Moves: Patrick Keane New EVP & CMO, CBS Interactive

Speaking of these side projects, what’s happening with the initial idea of disposing off more non-core products within CNET’s portfolio? Before it got acquired and in the middle of its board proxy fight with Jana Partners, CNET sold off its Webshots photo sharing site to American Greetings and promised to sell more. At that time I speculated MySimon and Search.com, among others, would be on that list.

Also, CBS is probably considering additional layoffs, I would imagine, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a major portion of them come from the editorial side, including News.com, CNET’s tech reviews, TechRepublic and others. Again, no inside knowledge yet, but just connecting the dots based on market realities, post-integration. For the Q308 earnings, CBS Interactive (which includes CNET) revs ballooned to $140.7 million from $35.9 million for the same quarter last year…and yes, even though it is a bright spot for the company, the relative reality is a lot more grim…