Comcast to acquire Plaxo: social TV en route?

By Tim Conneally | Published May 15, 2008, 1:12 PM

Plaxo, the social address book service, has announced today that it signed an agreement to be acquired by former partner Comcast for an undisclosed sum.

Last Year, Comcast partnered with Plaxo among others, to provide its "SmartZone" centralized communications portal to Comcast subscribers, set to launch later this year. Building upon that collaboration, the cable company now plans to fully integrate Plaxo's properties -- which include social networking site Pulse -- into its own Web services Comcast.net, Fancast, and Fandango.

The ultimate plans for this collaboration are yet undetailed, but Plaxo's blog notes that "Comcast has an exciting vision to bring the social media experience to mainstream consumers...across all of the devices they use."

Citing things like the importance of media sharing to Comcast's customers, and referring to the service taking root in Comcast's portal, Web sites, "and the television," Plaxo's modest 50-employee outfit has already more than doubled its potential audience through this acquisition. Comcast's subscriber base exceeds 24 million customers.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition has been independently valued at between $150-$170 million.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

I'm sure Comcast overpaid for Plaxo. I'm surprised Plaxo didn't do itself in a few years ago, when it began charging for services competitors give away for free. Plaxo still has their ridiculous "premium" membership, I think lowered from $49.99 down to $39.99. The benefits for someone like me, who uses Gmail exclusively and not Outlook, well there are none. I would be paying 40 bucks a year to send lame e-cards. And don't even get me started about Pulse.

Score: 0

|

Google Chrome 4: Yes, it's fast, but is it usable?

As Betanews readers have responded to our stories about Chrome's JavaScript superiority...Does that mean we'd actually use this browser? Well...

Video: Netflix on PlayStation 3

Netflix has come to the PlayStation 3 via Blu-ray and BD-Live.

Verizon Wireless launches new Android, Chocolate, and ruggedized phones

The lower-priced Eris joins the Droid, while the Chocolate gets a touchscreen and more music playback.

Early sales figures for Windows 7 nicely high, but do we know why?

Fans of triple-digit surges in figures quoted by Betanews will love this one, as it appears Microsoft rediscovered how to pull off a software launch.

Myka announces its latest Linux-based 'net top box'

Myka's ION brings Boxee, XMBC, and much more to HDTVs.

What hath Mac wrought? A remembrance after a quarter-century

The reason there's a Macintosh today is not because of some brilliant flash of engineering genius, but because Apple had the audacity to learn from its mistakes.

Early build of Moblin 2.1 improves connectivity, but not device support

The Linux Foundation's Atom-centric OS yesterday received a major overhaul with the project release of Moblin 2.1 for netbooks and nettops.

The iPhone's China syndrome: Sales of 5,000 and climbing

There's actually a country where Apple's device is not a godsend, where sales can be measured in the dozens.

New European counterpart to FCC will ensure 'a more neutral net'

Late Thursday night, the ruling telecom administrators of the EU's member nations signed away their final authority to a new entity overseen by the EC.

Sophos study suggests Windows 7 UAC's default setting is self-defeating

Without any anti-virus installed, a Sophos test showed, User Account Control was only capable of thwarting just one malware package out of ten samples chosen.

Indiscreet tweet trips awareness of Web SSL vulnerability

A group of high-level security engineers had been making progress on thwarting a low-level threat to the Web, until somebody blurted it all out on Twitter.