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''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and
consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...
globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and television in addition to its website and now uses
new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...
distribution methods through its Internet television network,
CNET Video CNET Video is a San Francisco and New York based network showing original programming catering to the niche market of technology enthusiasts, operated by Red Ventures through their CNET brand. CNET Video originated as the television program produ ...
, and its podcast and blog networks. Founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of
CBS Interactive Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media Group, CBS Interactive, ViacomCBS Streaming), a division of Paramount Global, oversees the company’s streaming technology and offers direct-to-consumer services, free, premium and pay. These incl ...
through that unit's acquisition of CNET Networks in 2008. It has been owned by Red Ventures since October 30, 2020. Other than English, ''CNETs region- and language-specific editions include Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.


History


Origins

After leaving PepsiCo, Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie launched ''CNET'' in 1994, after website
Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
was launched. With help from
Fox Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...
co-founder Kevin Wendle and former Disney creative associate Dan Baker, ''CNET'' produced four pilot television programs about computers, technology, and the Internet.
CNET TV CNET Video is a San Francisco and New York based network showing original programming catering to the niche market of technology enthusiasts, operated by Red Ventures through their CNET brand. CNET Video originated as the television program produ ...
was composed of ''CNET Central'', ''The Web'', and ''The New Edge''.CNET
/ref> ''CNET Central'' was created first and aired in
syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...
in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
on the
USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
. Later, it began airing on USA's sister network
Sci-Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. ...
along with ''The Web'' and ''The New Edge''. These were later followed by ''
TV.com TV.com was a website owned by Red Ventures that covered television series and episodes with a focus on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Origin ...
'' in 1996. Media personality Ryan Seacrest first came to national prominence at ''CNET'', as the host of ''The New Edge'' and doing various voice-over work for ''CNET''. CNET, Inc., the site's owner, had its
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
(IPO) in July 1996. In addition, ''CNET'' produced another television technology news program called ''News.com'' that aired on
CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
beginning in 1999. From 2001 to 2003, ''CNET'' operated CNET Radio on the Clear Channel-owned KNEW (910) in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
, WBPS (890) in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, and
XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its se ...
. CNET Radio offered technology-themed programming. After failing to attract a sufficient audience, CNET Radio ceased operating in January 2003 due to financial losses.


Acquisitions and expansions

In July 1999, CNET, Inc. acquired the Swiss-based company GDT, later renamed to CNET Channel. In 1998, CNET, Inc. granted the right to ''Asiacontent.com'' to set up ''CNET Asia'' and the operation was brought back in December 2000. In January 2000, the same time CNET, Inc. became CNET Networks, they acquired comparison shopping site
mySimon Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...
for $736 million. In October 2000, CNET Networks acquired
ZDNet ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication. His ...
for approximately $1.6 billion. In January 2001,
Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, an ...
reached an agreement with CNET Networks to regain the URLs lost in the 2000 sale of Ziff Davis to
SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...
, a publicly traded Japanese media and technology company. In April 2001, CNET acquired
TechRepublic TechRepublic is an online trade publication and social community for IT professionals, providing advice on best practices and tools for the needs of IT decision-makers. It was founded in 1997 in Louisville, Kentucky, by Tom Cottingham and Kim S ...
, which provides content for IT professionals from
Gartner Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its client ...
, for $23 million in cash and stock. In May 2002, CNET Networks acquired Smartshop, an automated product catalog and feature comparison technology company, for an undisclosed amount. On July 14, 2004, CNET Networks announced that it would acquire photography website Webshots for $70 million ($60 million in cash, $10 million in deferred consideration), completing the acquisition that same month. In October 2007, they sold Webshots to
American Greetings American Greetings Corporation is a privately owned American company and is the world's second largest greeting card producer behind Hallmark Cards. Based in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting cards, electr ...
for $45 million. In August 2005, CNET Networks acquired
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, a review aggregation website, for an undisclosed amount. In December 2006,
James Kim James Kim (August 9, 1971December 4, 2006) was an American television personality and technology analyst for the former TechTV international cable television network, reviewing products for shows including ''The Screen Savers'', ''Call for Help' ...
, an editor at ''CNET'', died in the Oregon wilderness. ''CNET'' hosted a memorial show and podcasts dedicated to him. On March 1, 2007, ''CNET'' announced the public launch of BNET, a website targeted towards business managers. BNET had been running under beta status since 2005. On May 15, 2008 it was announced that
CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and ...
would buy CNET Networks for US$ 1.8  billion. On June 30, 2008, the acquisition was completed. Former CNET Networks properties were managed under
CBS Interactive Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media Group, CBS Interactive, ViacomCBS Streaming), a division of Paramount Global, oversees the company’s streaming technology and offers direct-to-consumer services, free, premium and pay. These incl ...
at the time. CBS Interactive acquired many domain names originally created by CNET Networks, including
download.com CNET Download (originally Download.com) is an Internet download directory website launched in 1996 as a part of CNET. Initially it resided on the domain ''download.com'', and then ''download.com.com'' for a while, and is now ''download.cnet.com'' ...
, downloads.com, upload.com, news.com, search.com,
TV.com TV.com was a website owned by Red Ventures that covered television series and episodes with a focus on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Origin ...
, mp3.com, chat.com, computers.com, shopper.com, com.com, and cnet.com. It also held
radio.com Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national umbr ...
until CBS Radio was sold to
Entercom Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...
in 2017. On September 19, 2013 CBS Interactive launched a
Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in th ...
sister site under the name ''CNET en Español''. It focuses on topics of relevance primarily to Spanish-speaking technology enthusiasts. The site offered a "new perspective" on technology and is under the leadership of managing editor Gabriel Sama. The site not only offered news and tutorials, but also had a robust reviews section that it was led by Juan Garzon. After Red Ventures' acquisition, the company announced the closing of ''CNET en Español'' on November 11, 2020, leaving the largest tech site in Spanish in the US out of the market. In March 2014, ''CNET'' refreshed its site by merging with ''CNET UK'' and vowing to merge all editions of the agency into a unified agency. This merge brought many changes, foremost of which would be a new user interface and the renaming of CNET TV as CNET Video. On September 14, 2020, Red Ventures announced that it would acquire CNET from
ViacomCBS Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. It ...
for $500 million. The transaction was completed on October 30, 2020.


Websites


CNET Networks

Former websites by CNET Networks in 2009: * CNET.com, CNET Taiwan, CNET.co.uk, CNET Channel, CNET.de, CNET AU, CNET Asia, CNET Japan, CNET Gadget *ZDNet.com, ZDNet UK, ZDNet AU, ZDNet.fr, ZDNet DE, ZDNet China, ZDNet Korea Networks websites: * Silicon.com * News.com *
Download.com CNET Download (originally Download.com) is an Internet download directory website launched in 1996 as a part of CNET. Initially it resided on the domain ''download.com'', and then ''download.com.com'' for a while, and is now ''download.cnet.com'' ...
*
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
* MP3.com *
TechRepublic TechRepublic is an online trade publication and social community for IT professionals, providing advice on best practices and tools for the needs of IT decision-makers. It was founded in 1997 in Louisville, Kentucky, by Tom Cottingham and Kim S ...
* Builder * mySimon * atlarge.com * Webshots CNET Networks France websites: * businessMOBILE.fr * News.fr * Gamekult * Arts-Culinaires.com * Recettes-de-Cuisine.com * Cuisine-Noel.com * MusicSPOT.fr CNET Networks Japan websites: * GameSpot Japan * Tetsudo.com


''Gamecenter''

''CNET'' launched a website to cover
video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...
, ''CNET Gamecenter'', in the middle of 1996. According to the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'', it was "one of the first Web sites devoted to computer gaming news". It became a leading game-focused website; in 1999, '' PC Magazine'' named it one of the hundred-best websites in any field, alongside competitors ''
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' and ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
''. According to ''Gamecenter'' head Michael Brown, the site received between 50,000 and 75,000 daily visitors by late 2000. In May 2000, ''CNET'' founded the Gamecenter Alliance network to bring ''Gamecenter'' and four partner websites, including
Inside Mac Games ''Inside Mac Games'' (''IMG'') started in 1993 as an electronic magazine about Apple Macintosh computer gaming distributed by floppy disk, eventually becoming a website. History In 1992, Tuncer Deniz, who was unemployed, decided to create a maga ...
, under one banner. Nielsen//NetRatings ranked Gamecenter the sixth-most-popular gaming website in the United States by mid-2000. On July 19, 2000, CNET, Inc. made public its plan to buy
Ziff-Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, an ...
and its
ZDNet ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication. His ...
Internet business for $1.6 billion. Because ZDNet had partnered with SpotMedia—parent company of ''GameSpot''—in late 1996, the acquisition brought both ''GameSpot'' and ''Gamecenter'' under CNET, Inc.'s ownership. Later that year, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' described the two publications as the "''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' and ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' of gaming sites". The paper reported that ''Gamecenter'' "seem dto be thriving" amid the
dot-com crash The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
, with its revenue distributed across
online advertising Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...
and an affiliate sales program with ''CNET''s ''Game Shopper'' website, launched in late 1999. Following an almost $400 million loss at ''CNET'' as a result of the dot-com crash, the company ended the Gamecenter Alliance network in January 2001. On February 7, ''Gamecenter'' itself was closed in a redundancy reduction effort, as ''GameSpot'' was the more successful of the two sites. Around 190 jobs were cut from ''CNET'' during this period, including "at least 20" at ''Gamecenter'', according to the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. Discussing the situation, Tom Bramwell of
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EG ...
reported, "It is thought ..that very few if any of the website's staff will move sideways into jobs at ''GameSpot'', now the company's other gaming asset." ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' later noted that ''Gamecenter'' was among the "popular video-game news sites" to close in 2001, alongside
Daily Radar ''Daily Radar'' was a news aggregator and portal site for Future US's male-oriented content, including sports, film and television, and video games. Daily Radar started as a gaming website like IGN, GameSpy and GameSpot, and was later renamed and ...
.


Malware in downloads

With a catalog of more than 400,000 titles, the Downloads section of the website allows users to download popular software. ''CNET''s download.com provides
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
,
Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
, and mobile software for download. ''CNET'' claims that this software is free of
spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their priva ...
, but independent sources have confirmed that this is not the case. While
Download.com CNET Download (originally Download.com) is an Internet download directory website launched in 1996 as a part of CNET. Initially it resided on the domain ''download.com'', and then ''download.com.com'' for a while, and is now ''download.cnet.com'' ...
is overall a safe place to download programs, precautions should be taken before downloading from the site, as some downloads do contain malware.


Dispute with Snap Technologies

In 1998, CNET, Inc. was sued by Snap Technologies, operators of the education service CollegeEdge, for
trademark infringement Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may ...
relating to CNET, Inc.'s ownership of the domain name Snap.com, due to Snap Technologies already owning a trademark on its name. In 2005, Google representatives refused to be interviewed by all ''CNET'' reporters for a year after ''CNET'' published Google's CEO Eric Schmidt's salary and named the neighborhood where he lives, as well as some of his hobbies and political donations. All the information had been gleaned from Google searches. On October 10, 2006, Shelby Bonnie resigned as chairman and CEO, in addition to two other executives, as a result of a stock options backdating scandal that occurred between 1996 and 2003. This would also cause the firm to restate its financial earnings over 1996 to 2003 for over $105 million in resulting expenses. The Securities and Exchange Commission later dropped an investigation into the practice. Neil Ashe was named as the new CEO. In 2011, ''CNET'' and CBS Interactive were sued by a coalition of artists (led by FilmOn founder Alki David) for
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
by promoting the download of
LimeWire LimeWire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of pirated materials, particularly pirated mus ...
, a popular peer to peer downloading software. Although the original suit was voluntarily dropped by Alki David, he vowed to sue at a later date to bring "expanded" action against CBS Interactive. In November 2011, another lawsuit against CBS Interactive was introduced, claiming that ''CNET'' and CBS Interactive knowingly distributed LimeWire, the file sharing software.


Hopper controversy

In January 2013, ''CNET'' named Dish Network's "Hopper with Sling" digital video recorder as a nominee for the CES "Best in Show" award (which is decided by ''CNET'' on behalf of its organizers), and named it the winner in a vote by the site's staff. However, CBS abruptly disqualified the Hopper, and vetoed the results because the company was in active litigation with Dish Network. ''CNET'' also announced that it could no longer review any product or service provided by companies that CBS are in litigation with (which also includes
Aereo Aereo was a technology company based in New York City that allowed subscribers to view live and time-shifted streams of over-the-air television on Internet-connected devices. The service opened to customers in March 2012, and was backed by Barr ...
). The new vote subsequently gave the Best in Show award to the Razer Edge tablet instead. Dish Network's CEO Joe Clayton said that the company was "saddened that ''CNET''s staff is being denied its editorial independence because of CBS' heavy-handed tactics." On January 14, 2013, editor-in-chief Lindsey Turrentine addressed the situation, stating that ''CNET''s staff were in an "impossible" situation due to the conflict of interest posed by the situation, and promised that she would do everything within her power to prevent a similar incident from occurring again. The conflict also prompted one ''CNET'' senior writer, Greg Sandoval, to resign. The decision also drew the ire of staff from the
Consumer Electronics Association The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is a standard and trade organization representing 1,376 consumer technology companies in the United States. CTA works to influence public policy, holds events such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CE ...
, the organizers of CES; CEO
Gary J. Shapiro Gary J. Shapiro is an acclaimed author, lobbyist, and the president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association which represents over 1500 consumer technology companies and owns and produces the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Shapiro is the ...
criticized the decision in a ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' op-ed column and a statement by the CEA, stating that "making television easier to watch is not against the law. It is simply pro-innovation and pro-consumer." Shapiro felt that the decision also hurt the confidence of ''CNET''s readers and staff, "destroying its reputation for editorial integrity in an attempt to eliminate a new market competitor." As a result of the controversy and fearing damage to the show's brand, the CEA announced on January 31, 2013 that ''CNET'' will no longer decide the CES Best in Show award winner due to the interference of CBS (the position has been offered to other technology publications), and the "Best in Show" award was jointly awarded to both the Hopper with Sling and Razer Edge.


See also

*
ZDNet ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication. His ...
*''
TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $ ...
'' *''
TechRadar ''TechRadar'' is an online publication owned by Future and focused on technology. It has editorial teams in the US, UK and Australia and provides news and reviews of tech products and gadgets. It was launched in 2007 and expanded to the US in ...
'' *''
Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
''


References


External links

* {{Authority control American technology news websites Webby Award winners Former CBS Interactive websites Download websites Internet properties established in 1994 2008 mergers and acquisitions 2020 mergers and acquisitions Red Ventures