j2 Global Acquires Ziff Davis For $167M

j2 Global JCOM, the provider of business cloud services, today announced that it has acquired Ziff Davis, Inc., a leading media company in the technology market. The acquisition provides j2 a series of world-class web properties, including PCMag.com, ComputerShopper, ExtremeTech, Toolbox.com and Geek.com. The purchase price was approximately $167 million, net of certain post-closing adjustments, and was funded out of j2's cash on hand. The transaction is anticipated to be immediately accretive and to contribute approximately $60 million to 2013 revenues. After giving effect to this transaction, j2 has over $300 million in cash and investments. “We have years of experience and significant interest in the digital media and online marketing space, both as a large scale consumer of advertising (~$50M per year) and as a seller of advertising on our ad supported properties (e.g. eFax Free) and a provider of marketing and advertising services through Campaigner®,” said Hemi Zucker, j2's chief executive officer. “This acquisition brings scale to this effort with a top leadership team deeply committed to building the business through organic growth, which we expect to continue. This is our 40^th acquisition and we plan to grow the business in the same way we have our others - through a combination of internal growth and acquisitions.”