Mashable, which specializes in stories about technology and social media, could bolster CNN.com, which is one of the most popular news Web sites in the United States. An acquisition of Mashable would make a statement about CNN’s interest in start-ups and social media.
A blogger for Reuters, Felix Salmon, reported on Sunday night that a CNN acquisition of Mashable could be announced on Tuesday. Early Monday morning, officials at CNN denied that an announcement would be made on Tuesday and declined to comment on the potential acquisition.
On Monday morning, Pete Cashmore, the chief executive of Mashable, e-mailed his staff to say that the “rumor going around on Twitter that Mashable will be acquired this week” is not true. The e-mail didn’t address the ongoing talks between his company and CNN, and left the door open for an acquisition announcement the week after.
“Mashable’s one of the hottest brands here at SXSW and there’s bound to be rumors coming out of the festival,” Mr. Cashmore wrote to the staff. “We’ve had a great presence here and I look forward to updating you guys when we get back.”
The people with knowledge of the talks insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak by their employers. It is possible that the acquisition will not be completed, some of the people cautioned.
Nonetheless, news of the potential acquisition spread rapidly among attendees at South by Southwest, a technology conference here that celebrates the kind of old-and-new-media combination that CNN and Mashable would represent. Both companies have big groups of staffers at the conference and both have been hosting parties, sometimes with other media partners.
Mashable, which is seven years old and is privately held, would be CNN.com’s largest acquisition to date. Last fall, CNN.com acquired Zite, a company that made an iPad app that determines what its users want to read and view, for a price that was estimated to be between $20 million and $25 million. Mashable would cost CNN far more to acquire.
Mashable is best-known in Internet circles for covering social media and technology, though it has expanded recently to include business and entertainment coverage. It has hired aggressively and has partnered with a number of mainstream news sites, including CNN and ABC News. CNN already syndicates some of its stories.
There was a social media hint about the potential acquisition early Monday morning when Adam Ostrow, the executive editor of Mashable, “liked” on Facebook Mr. Salmon’s story for Reuters. Mr. Ostrow did not respond to a request for comment.
