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October 11, 2007 9:15 AM PDT

CBS reportedly buys celebrity gossip site Dotspotter

by Caroline McCarthy

Rumors started flying on Thursday morning that CBS had picked up celebrity gossip site Dotspotter for somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million. Valleywag reported the dirt first, and the strictly-business PaidContent said that industry sources had confirmed it.

Dotspotter has not yet responded to a request for comment.

CBS' interactive division, headed by Valley veteran Quincy Smith, has been acquisition-happy in recent months, snapping up social music site Last.fm and finance video blog Wallstrip. It's not yet clear whether Dotspotter--or CBS' other digital acquisitions, for that matter--will remain standalone or ultimately be integrated into the media company's existing properties.

Dotspotter, it should be noted, isn't a run-of-the-mill celebrity gossip blog. Founded by former Yahoo executive Anthony Soohoo, the slick and mashup-friendly site features Digg-like social news ranking, aggregated videos, and a Google Maps-based chart of celebrity sightings across the country. As PaidContent and Valleywag pointed out, ex-YouTuber and current Facebook chief financial officer Gideon Yu is reportedly an investor.

Celebrity gossip remains one of the Web's hottest niches; AOL's TMZ.com, which now has a primetime TV show tie-in, has been such a notable success for the faltering tech company that people actually believed a bizarre analyst report that the entire company would be restructured so that it was TMZ-centric.

Dotspotter founder Soohoo's former company, Yahoo, has launched its own entry into the field, appropriately titled OMG.

Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline.
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Add a Comment (Log in or register)
Whats better than dotspotter?
by xpose October 11, 2007 4:29 PM PDT
I can't believe they made it. But there is something better out there. . . .

http://www.CelebrityPWN.com of course.
Reply to this comment
by butchofmegatechnique October 11, 2008 4:45 PM PDT
Caroline digging deep as ever to get the real facts. Nice work. Yeah, big companies will also create new sub-niches and openly compete in saturated markets. I hear a rumour that Microsoft is going to be buying up digital image art sites like http://www.totallymodernart.com I'm not sure if its true however, because that's a really small site.
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About The Social

CNET News' Caroline McCarthy is a downtown Manhattanite who believes that, despite popular opinion, the Web can actually help your social life. She's happily addicted to fun social-media tools from Twitter to Yelp to Facebook, sends an inordinate number of text messages, and has a tendency to waste time at the office reading restaurant blogs. Here, she explores all facets of the Web's gregarious side, as well as the unique tech culture in her home city of New York. (Don't call it Silicon Alley.)

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