According to Kara Swisher‘s anonymous sources, Yahoo’s prepared to pay $100 million.  CafeMom would like to see $200 million instead, so the deal isn’t a sure thing.

Still, setting aside financial issues, the acquisition would make a fair amount of sense for Yahoo.  A CafeMom "About Us" section is quick to point out, "As the #1 media property for moms, CafeMom reaches 6.7MM unique visitors per month on cafemom.com (comscore, May 2010) and 18MM+ unique visitors per month on CafeMom Plus (comscore, May 2010), a boutique network of sites that reach moms and parents."

It’s not like CafeMom is only about eyeballs, either, as the section also noted, "CafeMom was profitable in 2009 and expects even more rapid revenue and profit growth in 2010."

So Yahoo could to some degree justify the purchase to investors and dangle the site in front of advertisers, showing off its track record and traffic numbers.  Which is more than anybody can say for at least one or two other acquisitions the company’s made over the years.

We’ll see what happens.  Yahoo’s stock finished the day up 1.09 percent, anyway, giving the company a larger market cap.

Digital moms have moved beyond email and search, and are now active users of Web 2.0 technologies. The majority of moms are using social networks (65%) and text messaging (56%). More than half are also gamers, with 52 percent playing games online or via a console.

Moms with children 12 and older are motivated to adopt new technologies. Digital moms of children 12 and older compared with moms with children under 12, are more likely to watch online video (40% VS. 34%), game (57% VS. 51%), read online consumer reviews (38% VS. 30%), and watch or listen to podcasts (13% VS. 9%).

TV still has the most impact on creating initial awareness for a product (31%), social channels such as online reviews, blogs and social network sites are influential in the researching stage (29%).

"With the rise of social networking, moms are becoming less dependent on traditional media and brand advertising to inform purchase decisions," said Laura Fortner, SVP of marketing and insights at CafeMom.

"Marketers can extend brand engagement by interacting with moms in their space and leveraging their influence within their social networks."

CafeMom Mops Up $5 Million In Funding

“Moms are much more than a niche,” explained a press release.  “There are 40 million American moms with kids at home, they control 80% of household spending, and they are the primary customer for leading consumer brands across categories.  With more than 65 million pageviews and 1.7 million unique visits in July (up from 23 million PV and 750,000 UV at the end of Q1), CafeMom is already a leading destination on the web for mothers.”

And there you have it: those statistics answer the objections I usually raise to these types of stories.  Toss in a few high-profile advertisers – Playskool, Disney, and General Mills, for example – and we’re all set.

Dan Nova, a managing general partner at Highland Capital Partners, stated, “We are delighted to invest in CafeMom to rapidly grow the Company’s traffic and revenues,” and you can’t blame the guy.  Highland Capital participated in Metacafe’s recent $30 million financing round, by the way, so CafeMom would appear to have its foot stuck in the door of a very wealthy firm.

Also, VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall notes, “Women-oriented sites are experiencing robust growth . . . suggesting this is a good a time as any for the company to get a second wind.”