Ziff Davis Bought Out, Vivek Shah Assumes CEO Role

Vivek Shah

Technology publisher Ziff Davis on Friday said it agreed to a buyout deal led by private-equity firm Great Hill Partners and former Time Warner executive Vivek Shah. Financial terms of the deal were not released, but reports put the cost at less than $150 million.

Effective immediately, Shah is assuming the role of CEO at Ziff Davis, which he describes as "an incredible foundation off which to build an exciting new digital media company."

The nine Ziff Davis properties being acquired include PCMag.com, ExtremeTech, GearLog, GoodCleanTech, DL.tv, AppScout, CrankyGeeks, Smart Device Central and TechSaver.com. Together, they reach some 7 million users per month, according to Ziff Davis.

Shah, who left Time Warner at the end of last year, said the new Ziff Davis would specialize in producing and distributing content for consumers making important buying decisions.

"This is an unusual opportunity to acquire a recognized category leader with a very deep team of talent that has already fully transitioned to digital," he added.

During his 15 years at Time Inc., Shah is credited with launching CNNMoney.com in 2006 by pooling the digital resources of Fortune, Fortune Small Business, and Business 2.0, together with sister company CNN.

Shah at the time attributed the consolidation of Time Warner's Web properties to several industry trends: consumers' growing desire to get all their news from one source; a demand from advertisers and media buyers to scale their buys; and a strengthening ad market.

Shah also brokered an exclusive multiyear partnership with contextual ad service Quigo. The deal, which extended across all Time Inc. Web properties, was expected to generate an estimated $100 million over three years.

Along with Ziff Davis' media properties, its acquirers are getting Ziff Davis Labs, a computer-testing lab designed to produce objective product testing.

Ziff Davis has been bought and sold several times since 1994, when the founding Ziff family sold the company to Forstmann Little & Co. for over $1.4 billion. In 2008, the company even filed for bankruptcy protection, and was subsequently taken over by its bondholders.

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