MTV to buy RateMyProfessors.com

MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, announced Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire RateMyProfessors.com. The company says the acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of March 2007. The site, which allows college students to share information on the performance of college professors, has more than 6.6 million ratings on more than 900,000 college professors and is visited by more than 10 million college students, according to MTV Networks.

RateMyProfessors will become a part of MTV Network's mvtU.com, an online channel of job listings, philanthropy projects, campus news, music and videos for college students, as well as a campus television production company. The deal represents the company's goal to grows its college student market "on-air, online and on campus," the company said in a statement. In August 2006, MTV Networks bought Y2M: Youth Media & Market Networks, the parent company of College Publisher, an online college newspaper network. Since then, College Publisher has grown to include 500 online college newspapers.