Big media hunts for Web cred, again

BIG MEDIA HUNTS FOR WEB CRED, AGAIN
[SOURCE: News.com, AUTHOR: Caroline McCarthy]
This summer has been an unusual hunting season for the start-up world, with nascent Internet companies firmly in the crosshairs of major media conglomerates. Sometimes, the motives behind the purchases are ambiguous, but one thing's clear--media companies are forking over amounts of cash in the tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars for Web start-ups that would seem more appropriate targets for a Yahoo or Google. The big media rush to buy into the Web brings a remarkable sense of deja vu--and skepticism. The common wisdom (based on more than a little evidence, like Time Warner's hugely disappointing acquisition of AOL), ever since the first wave of tech acquisitions in the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, has been that big media doesn't know what to do with its pricey Web acquisitions. "It's a classic example of how the old media companies have been extremely slow to adapt to the new opportunities posed by (new) technologies. They are trying at a late date to acquire," said Alan Mutter, blogger, "Reflections of a Newsosaur"
http://news.com.com/Big+media+hunts+for+Web+cred%2C+again/2100-1030_3-62...