Viacom announced this week that it was purchasing Y2M, a youth-media publisher of 450 online college newspapers, to extend its considerable influence over the youth market.
Business Weeksays
the deal shows how Viacom's approach differs from its rivals when reaching young people online. Many speculated that Viacom would go after News Corp.'s MySpace by acquiring a rival social network like
Facebook. But the price of such social networks rose considerably after the runaway success of MySpace. In March, Facebook's founders hoped to sell the site to Viacom for $2 billion, more than twice
what Rupert Murdoch and company paid for MySpace parent Intermix. Because of the high price tag, Viacom sought something under the radar. Y2M is seriously under the radar, and it definitely didn't
cost $2 billion--although the terms of the acquisition were undisclosed. The Y2M deal was struck by MTV's mtvU unit, a channel broadcast over college campus networks; it also streams over the Web at
www.mtvu.com. The publisher will help MTV expand its media influence at college campuses. It will also provide Viacom with added market research data.
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