• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 14, 2012

Investing further in the technology information space, Ziff Davis has added ComputerShopper.com to its network of Web properties. "ComputerShopper.com perfectly fits our mission to inform and influence buyers of technology," said Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis.  

Founded in 1979, Computer Shopper was actually a Ziff Davis property from 1993-to-2001, when it was sold to CNet. SX2 Media Labs, which purchased Computer Shopper from CNET in 2006, is now selling it back to Ziff Davis.

"We're thrilled to be bringing Computer Shopper back into the Ziff Davis portfolio as a digital business with a very devoted audience," Shah said.

One of the original consumer technology publications, Computer Shopper currently claims over 1.5 million monthly unique visitors despite an influx of rivals in recent years.

ComputerShopper.com joins PCMag.com, ExtremeTech.com, Geek.com, Toolbox.com and LogicBuy.com in Ziff Davis' group of owned-and-operated Web properties.

At the beginning of the year, Ziff Davis bought Toolbox.com -- one of the Web’s first professional social networks, which serves IT professionals.

With its nearly 2.5 million users as of January, Toolbox.com became a unit of Ziff Davis B2B Focus. Formed in 2011 following Ziff Davis’ acquisition of Focus Research, it provides online research to enterprise buyers and helps IT vendors find leads, as well as handling syndication and producing webinars.

The division’s areas of responsibility include ITManagement.com, ITSecurity.com, VOIPNews.com and InsideCRM.com, drawing on its database of IT resources and library of white papers and buying guides for IT.

The acquisition marks a further development in Ziff Davis’ reinvention as an online information clearinghouse serving the tech industry -- and its fifth acquisition since the beginning of 2011.

Over the last five years, Ziff Davis has sold or closed a number of print titles, including its Enterprise Group, sold in 2007, 1UP, sold in 2009, while PC Magazine (not to be confused with PCMag.com) and Electronic Gaming Monthly shuttered in 2009.

After emerging from bankruptcy in mid-2008, the company was acquired by Great Hill Partners in 2010, and then pursued a series of strategic acquisitions to drive its transition from print to multiplatform publishing.

All told, Ziff Davis claims to reach over 50 million in-market technology buyers and influencers every month.