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IAC Stakes A Bet On CollegeHumor.com
By David A. Utter
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2006-08-15
Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp picked up the majority stake in ConnectedVentures, the parent company of naughty humor site CollegeHumor.com.
Maybe Diller will bring back Jeeves the Butler to babysit the CollegeHumor website, a place where outrageous humor and propriety never have to spend much time together. IAC purchased a 51 percent stake in ConnectedVentures; pricing and terms of the deal were not disclosed.
IAC acknowledged in a statement that CollegeHumor and its photos, videos, and jokes will be the first site to join IAC Programming. IAC created the Programming division earlier in 2006 to purchase sites like CollegeHumor, ones with a built-in community.
That community, of course, must be comprised of the all-powerful young demographic, before which all marketers worship. IAC found CollegeHumor's more than 6 million monthly unique users, and more than 200 million monthly page views, an attractive vehicle for connecting advertisers with the younger set.
"With its distinct brand of humor, CollegeHumor has emerged as a viral success with an enormously loyal audience among young adults," said Michael Jackson, President of IAC Programming, said in the statement. "The founders have done an outstanding job of growing the business by appealing to a well-defined audience with a consistent voice and sensibility."
CollegeHumor co-founders Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen will stay in place at ConnectedVentures. They have a film in development with Paramount, and recently released the book, "The CollegeHumor Guide to College."
Now that IAC has given Jackson his first new site to play with, we wonder what will be next. Could IAC deign YouTube ripe for acquiring? Will they pick up a social networking site to compete with MySpace? And most importantly, will IAC Programming provide a significant boost to advertisers with Ask.com's sponsored listings program?
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Tag: CollegeHumor.com
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About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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