E. W. Scripps Co. to buy Shopzilla

Owners of newspapers, broadcasting channels and cable TV networks E. W. Scripps Co. have announced plans to acquire the comparison-shopping Web site Shopzilla. This is another one of the case where companies doing the business in traditional ways are trying to establish a presence on the Internet. It is becoming more and more lucrative to have an establishment on the net as people get more used to shop online.

The acquisition would give Scripps a stronghold in the fast-growing search advertising market. They would be paying a massive $525 million in cash for 100 percent of Shopzilla and the privately held shareholders would get the extra benefit of receiving net working capital at the time of closing.

This news came just as one of the world’s largest shopping website eBay bought Shopping.com for a massive $620 million in cash. That deal was aimed to get a stronghold in the market of offering the consumer comparison of products on offer for sale. Google is involved in this line as well with their Froogle website.

This latest deal between Scripps and Shopzilla is expected to complete by the third quarter of this year if the regulatory authorities give their approval and is expected to erode the earnings for the company in this current financial year.

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