• April 14, 2008

To more effectively reach African-American consumers, Urban radio broadcasting company Radio One has acquired social networking startup Community Connect for about $38 million dollars.

Community Connect owns and operates a number of social-networking brands under its umbrella including BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com, and AsianAve.com. With over 23 million members, CCI is a comScore Top 50 Social Networking Web publisher and category leader for building niche online communities/destinations for U.S. ethnic groups.

Upon closing the transaction, current CCI president and founder Ben Sun will continue to run the company, and will report to Radio One head Tom Newman. Community Connect has approximately 100 employees and is headquartered in New York.

In late 2006, Radio One purchased GIANT, a magazine targeting urban consumers, and has an interest in the African-American-targeted cable network TV ONE.

--Gavin O'Malley