Comcat Buys DailyCandy

Posted on August 6, 2008

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Comcast has acquired DailyCandy for $125 million. DailyCandy is a popular email newsletter publisher covering fashion, food and entertainment in major U.S. cities.

As previously reported, Comcast (CMCSA) was indeed interested in buying DailyCandy. But they ended up paying much more than the $75 million we head about earlier this month -- the cable company is paying Bob Pittman's Pilot Group Ventures $125 million for newsletter business, a source close to the sale tells us.

We hear that Viacom was also interested in the property, which has been off and on the blocks for the last few years, and had been considering paying $120 million. We also hear the company dropped out of the bidding process, run by Web 2.0 bankers Montgomery & Co., in June. In a congratulatory letter to the DailyCandy staff, Pittman says that the company is on track to hit $25 million in revenue this year and EBITDA of "well over" $10 million:

The WSJ's story on the deal says DailyCandy had 2.5 million readers. Comcast seems to be becoming somewhat more of a content company as they develop. Caroline McCarthy at CNET's The Social notes that Comcast also recently acquired Movies.com and Plaxo, a social aggregator. Bizjournals.com says Comcast's interactive division is "responsible for developing and operating Internet businesses focused on entertainment, information and communication" - so they are definitely into content building but nothing on cable rival Time Warner's scale - at least not yet.

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