CBS Acquires Wallstrip - You Can Make Money From Blogging!!!
One of the most exciting days of my life for sure. — Today, CBS has acquired Wallstrip . — Lot's of people to thank. The biggest sacrifices have come from my wife Ellen and my sweet kids Rachel and Max. My dog Bagel is indifferent.
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes out a deal that leaked just over a week ago, when Jossip reported CBS was in talks to buy the stock-market video blog while questioning how anyone 'eeks out' real profit from such a property (that report framed it as more headache than prize). The pickup lands squarely on the thesis Business 2.0 laid out in its August 2006 'Blogging for Dollars' piece: small web-native media properties were starting to command real exits.
The buyer's logic traces straight back to Les Moonves' stated strategy of distributing CBS content everywhere and getting paid for it — the same playbook behind the network's $1.99 Survivor downloads on its own site. A four-outlet confirmation sweep (TechCrunch, GigaOM, Fred Wilson's AVC, NewTeeVee) on announcement day shows how closely the venture and blog communities were watching this one as a template.
First-order effects
- Lindzon and the Wallstrip team trade an independent ad-supported show for a CBS paycheck, converting roughly nine months of daily production into an exit that validates the blog-to-studio path for creators and their angel investors.
- CBS gains a working format — short-form finance video with a personality-driven cast — that it can run under its own banner instead of developing one in-house.
Second-order effects
- Other broadcast networks now face a buy-versus-build decision on web video talent, and every comparable indie show's asking price gets marked up against this deal.
- For the investor community around Lindzon (Wilson's AVC post frames the sale as an exit), the deal makes micro-budget web video a fundable category rather than a hobby.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the major networks' digital strategies shift from porting existing TV brands onto the web toward acquiring formats born there — with Moonves' 'distribute everywhere and get paid' doctrine pointing toward more content deals across radio, download, and web video channels.
- The economics question Jossip raised still stands unresolved: whether an acquired web show retains its audience and ad value inside a corporate studio is exactly what the next cycle of these deals will test.
The trend: Mainstream media consolidation of web-native video brands is moving from novelty to standard M&A practice, as networks buy proven formats instead of building them.