According to the Wall Street Journal, Discovery Communications (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet) is set to announce its purchase of HowStuffWorks.com for a whopping $250 million. Although details of the deal haven't been announced yet, for Discovery, grabbing one of the most popular online reference tools on the web should allow the edutainment giant to expand its lagging web properties.
The HSW buy is not only Discovery's biggest to date, but also shows how the company has followed suit with the recent trend of acquiring existing web properties instead of pursuing a homegrown buildout.
"We're way behind in new media and digital," said Discovery's Chief Executive David Zaslav of the company's current stance."I don't think we win just by building vertically." If the end result becomes more than the sum of its parts, then Zaslav and Co. may be on the right track. Combining HSW's 11 million users and wealth of online reference content with Discovery's expansive video library should spell success for both parties -- at least on paper. We'll see how things look after the rebranding.
[Via WSJ]
