Maybe it's because spring is on the way in the Northern Hemisphere. Everyone seems to have acquisition love on their minds as of late. We've seen Microsoft-Yahoo!, rumors of Google stepping in to look at Yahoo!, and now, according to Brian Heater of AppScout, Google is now looking at buying CNET. Though it is only a rumor at this point, it was enough to drive the stock of CNET up 7 percent in trading on Friday.
An Interactive Brokers Group equity options analyst, Rebecca Engmann Darst, told Reuters of another theory that is currently floating around. "Another scenario," she said, "is that these rumors have originated with call buyers who took a hit after CNET issued lackluster guidance this week and were left holding the bag." Could this be a new use for Google? The stock of a company you own is sagging, so it's time to start a rumor that Google is looking to purchase said company?
It's a little difficult to think of a reason Google would want the tech news company, as Google doesn't have a history of producing fresh content; their news has always been served up in the form of aggregating from other news sites, not creating their own.