Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) wants candy, daily. Well, sort of.
The cable television provider continues its dot-com shopping ways, snapping up DailyCandy.com in a deal reportedly worth $125 million.
It's the company's latest purchase, just weeks after buying the Movies.com domain from Disney (NYSE:DIS). Other Comcast online buys include video-sharing site Ziddio and ticket seller Fandango.
Daily Candy is a city-specific lifestyle site geared towards women. Think IAC's (NASDAQ:IACI) Citysearch or Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) Cityguide after a Carrie Bradshaw makeover. The site's categories include edgy takes on local dining, shopping, and spas. True to its name, readers can sign up to receive daily content by email.
Daily Candy is the type of site that would have looked fetching on the arm of a search portal looking to target gender-specific, high-net-worth local traffic. Why did Comcast win out? Why was its nearest rival for the purchase cable-programming giant Viacom (NYSE:VIA), which showed initial interest but apparently bowed out two months ago? What's the deal, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)? Don't you get the value of this niche audience?
Without knowing the numbers behind privately held Daily Candy, we don't know whether Comcast is overpaying for the site, but it's easy to see why this acquisition fits right into the company's game plan.
Comcast is winning subscribers with its "triple play" bundled offering of cable television, broadband Internet access, and local phone service. Daily Candy is the kind of site that would make an ideal landing page for its trendy access accounts in major metropolitan markets. It's also a welcome property to own as the Web and television viewing converge, giving advertisers a "triple play" of their own to reach targeted audiences on many different levels.
In short, it's a Comcastic deal.
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