August 9, 2006

Viacom to buy Atom Entertainment

Marshall Kirkpatrick

25 comments »

San Francisco’s Atom Entertainment is about to be purchased by media giant Viacom, the Wall St. Journal reports. Atom Entertainment is home to Atom Films, a site that highlights short films, and the ShockWave series of game sites.

The price is rumored to be $200 million; Valleywag reported on the WSJ story first. Viacom was rumored yesterday to be interested in purchasing social networking site Bebo, possibly for a staggering sum. Bebo plus Atom under the Viacom umbrella could pose a formidable challenge to MySpace.

Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 at 9:19 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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RedAlt

August 9th, 2006 at 9:52 am

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Viacom、Atom Entertainmentを買収

August 9th, 2006 at 10:56 am

Web 2.0 - Что нового? Новости интернет проектов » Viacom покупает Atom Entertainment

August 9th, 2006 at 11:12 am

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August 10th, 2006 at 9:59 am

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August 13th, 2006 at 5:27 am

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Comments

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Ted

August 9th, 2006 at 9:32 am

How would Bebo+Atom= a challenge to MySpace? I don’t think people go to MySpace for the games and movies, they go there because their friends are there. Although perhaps MySpace’s model is not as monetizable as one built around consumption of media? Perhaps you can expand on how you think those two acquisitions would pose a challenge to dominator (in the US) Myspace.
russ

August 9th, 2006 at 9:58 am

thank you, for another ” crystall ball enlightment” on comment such as “could pose a formidable challenge to MySpace.”
Robert Dewey

August 9th, 2006 at 10:22 am

I don’t know about a “challenge” per se… Many teens use mutliple networks, usually a combination of MySpace and Facebook. If anything, it would be interesting if Facebook was purchased by NewsCorp in an attempt to link MySpace + Facebook.

Bebo is the winner overseas, but I don’t see it knocking out MySpace, especially when so many people have put so much time and effort into their profile and friends network.
Mike Basten

August 9th, 2006 at 10:32 am

I used to work at Viacom… they are all just scratching their heads to what’s going on. I think they lost out big when they slept on MySpace, Facebook kind of said ___ off to them with their 2 billion dollar counter offer, now they are just fishing for the answers. There I said it They may have a shot with some mtvU content, but truthfully at this point their best bet is with Mr. Square Pants and Comedy Central.

I have a site http://mykin.us I invite you to check out. It’s not going to compete with MySpace either, but it’s kind of a neat idea. We have good code, some fresh features, and a pretty sweet bus to get the word out with http://blog.mykin.us

It’s still a question mark… but who knows?
EP

August 9th, 2006 at 10:46 am

Congratulations to the Atom team. They have been doing great things for a long time.
Niki Scevak

August 9th, 2006 at 11:00 am

Err “Telcom giant” Viacom?

Sumner may not be happy with being stripped of his media mogul status.
Akram

August 9th, 2006 at 11:08 am

That’s really good news for atom films. I’m a fan of atoms’ “The Little Ninjai” series http://ninjai.com .
Kelly Smith

August 9th, 2006 at 11:34 am

Congrats Mika! You deserve it. Pop the bubbly…
TG

August 9th, 2006 at 12:14 pm

any sense of revenue this year for Atom?
atomic1fire

August 9th, 2006 at 12:51 pm

hey ninjai on nickleodian
Jeff Clavier

August 9th, 2006 at 1:07 pm

And who invested in them ? Sequoia, with Mike Moritz on their board…
Vitor

August 9th, 2006 at 1:22 pm

Hi Michael

I had the pleasure of seeing you in Amsterdam, at the Next Web Conference. I used to be a fan of this blog back then.

I’ve noticed lately, though, that this blog is less and less about new Internet tech products (which was the reason why I subscribed to your feed, and also why you turned to be an A-list), but more and more about buying/selling/investing/VC’ing companies.

I will still stay loyal to the feed, as amid the whole $$$ garbage there’s something here and there that it still is interesting, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve been feeling more and more disappointed with what used to be my favourite feed… I wish there could be again more focus on the products itself then who got money where and how…

Your used-to-be-a-fan although still-loyal-reader
Vitor
Guk

August 10th, 2006 at 12:17 am

Viacom has something in their head. First the agreement with Google and now purchasing Atom. What’s going on? Their balance of sheet shows they have plenty of debt, and plus they don’t even have enough cash to pay basic costs. A strange move by Viacom.
99tvb@99tvb.com

August 10th, 2006 at 2:23 am

free,film,http://www.99tvb.com
George Kasava

August 10th, 2006 at 5:19 am

Regarding the post above complaining about this blog (e.g. Vitor above). This blog hasn’t changed, it continues to be one of the best for comments on all things new (and newish) about web businesses and the factors affecting them. The environment it operates in and addresses continually evolves and this blog keeps pace and does it well.

I sometimes consider that those who complain are the ones who are not evolving.

Keep it up Mike.

George.
Chubbs

August 10th, 2006 at 7:04 am

Viacom has missed the boat again. Instead of figuring out that marrying MTV, with all it’s accses to mainstream musicians, with a social network, there are many MTV’rs, would make them a powerful force on the Internet; they instead buy an irrelevant company.

I’ve analyzed the traffic from Viacom’s other internet properties, and they have all decreased in the last 3 months.

http://www.bumpbox.com/article.php?id=68

I think Viacom is purchasing for the sake of purchasing, and they are investing in low-risk sites that are easily managed. That’s why they’ll probably never be a News Corp.
Chris Gear

August 10th, 2006 at 9:10 am

First off, Vitor is totally off base here. Techcrunch continues to grow and move forward. Mike, Marshall, and the rest of the gang report what there is to report quite well, and not to mention they have always done a great job of reviewing for us as well. We get sneak peaks and honest feedback from dedicated people without agendas. Thanks guys!

Back on track… Viacom is on the move. I think it may be a little early to pass judgement on Viacom. Hundreds of millions are not thrown around lightly, nor without a plan brewing. We have all been surprised before, and they have been around the block more than a few times.

Congrats on the cash Atom!