WASHINGTON: Television titan CBS Corp. announced plans on Thursday to ramp up its technology side by buying troubled Internet news firm CNET Networks for 1.8 billion dollars in cash.

The deal will make CBS "one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States," with 54 million US users and 200 million worldwide, according to a CBS statement.

The acquisition would give the US television network operator the tech news and entertainment portals CNET and ZDNet, along with other sites including GameSpot.com, TV.com, CNET News, UrbanBaby, BNET, CHOW and Search.com.

"There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks," said CBS president and chief executive Leslie Moonves.

"CBS stands for premium content and unparalleled reach, and CNET Networks will add a tremendous platform to extend our complementary entertainment, news, sports, music and information content to a whole new global audience."

CNET has a "large international footprint," particularly in China, according to CBS.

"Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest-growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives."

The deal calls for CBS to make a cash tender offer for all CNET shares at 11.50 dollars per share, a 45 percent premium from the stock's closing price a day earlier.

CNET sites attract more than 160 million people each month, making it the 10th largest Internet network on the Web. It includes operations in Australia, China, Switzerland, and Britain.

The proposed marriage of CBS and CNET comes as the pioneering Internet news service founded in San Francisco in 1993 promises to quell a budding rebellion by investors unhappy with the firm's performance.

"CNET was facing what appeared to be a stockholder revolt," Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle told AFP. "They needed to do something dramatic."

CNET's stock price ended the trading day up more than 43 percent to 11.41 dollars per share.

Meanwhile, CBS shares dropped slightly more than two percent to 24.23 dollars in an apparent sign that the market is frowning on the company buying an Internet property in need of fixing.

The union could prove a boon for both firms, with CBS using CNET's presence in technology news to get a chunk of the fast-growing online advertising market and using its entertainment expertise to polish CNET offerings, analysts said.

"CBS knows how to craft shows to a general audience and CNET knows the technology topic," Enderle said.

"It's going to have to come together right, but together they should make a great product," he added.

"When you see people lining up at stores for the next Apple product you see the potential for news and advertising."

Enderle expects the CBS move to start a "feeding frenzy," with rival entertainment titans shopping for Internet technology news websites such as Engadget, G4, Digital Trends or Ubergizmo.

After the deal is closed CNET Network's websites will be combined with CBS online television and radio properties that CBS says reach 82 percent of US Internet users.

"Today's announcement brings together two organisations that complement each other and we look forward to taking our business and our brands to the next level," CNET chief executive Neil Ashe said in a written release. - AFP/de