Social media is a place for spreading news fast and easy, but so do rumours also take their hold. One such recent circulating rumour is about CNN acquiring Mashable according to CNET. This is not anything to just get pass by. Those who are well into social media news know really well that Mashable is one of the leading blogs about social media itself which started in July 2005. The site is huge indeed with 20 million unique visitors a month.
But the news is not just about CNN acquiring it, something that Mashable’s owner and founder Pete Cashmore has denied to his own team, but the big part of the news is that CNN will buy Mashable for $200 million. This is a huge chunk of investment on part of the CNN, which is an international news network. If the acquisition is to take place really, then it also shows how much important Mashable has been to the social media news coverage that a major news network wants to make it a part of their own.
The news, however, has somewhat an uncertain status despite being reported by Reuters’ blogger Felix Salmon. But he says that “a little bird” told him. Usually the metaphor refers to an insider being involved who is guised in the words to avoid direct naming as the little bird, but it might actually be an instinct in other cases, but not this. For this case, it certainly seems to be the former case where an insider has related this at some level.
This some level seems to be just at the negotiations stage which has not been finalized as yet according to The New York Times. How much truth there could be in these rumours can be well judged by the fact that one of Mashable’s editors, Adam Ostrow, “Liked” on Facebook the Reuters story of “a little bird” relating the incident.
If indeed it is the case, which does seem to be very likely that if not CNN that Mashable has made itself worthy that some or the other network acquires it someday, then why would Pete Cashmore be hesitant in acknowledging this fact of the deal? Could there be a reason of trying to keep the deal on a higher price by creating a prior buzz about it to see what the visitors and readers at Mashable think and what other social media blogs have to say about it?
[ttjad]
