Discovery Communications Acquires HowStuffWorks
Attempting to bolster its underdeveloped Web presence, Discovery Communications Inc. today announced its intention to acquire HowStuffWorks.com.
The site, founded in 1998 by a former NC State professor and currently owned by The Convex Group out of Atlanta, GA, USA, will be purchased by Discovery for $250 million.
A marriage of HowStuffWorks' text and reference content with Discovery's 100,000+ hours of documentary, educational, and entertainment video footage is the highlight of the initial plan.
David Zaslav, a former NBC exec, took the position of CEO at Discovery in January 2007 and has been attempting to re-energize the company. Since that time, Discovery's retail outlets have been shut down, its workforce has diminished by 20%, and much of its executive staff has been replaced.
In a posting on HowStuffWorks, founder Marshall Brain says, "The timing is perfect. At this moment in history, we're seeing the beginning of a new era for both the TV industry and the Internet, and the years ahead promise to bring tectonic shifts. So many technological possibilities are introduced every day that no one can really predict how it will all unfold."
Many television stations are scrambling for new ways to present their programming in this transitional period, and now that Discovery has partnered with HowStuffWorks, we may soon find the likes of Dirty Jobs in some unlikely places.