Alan Meckler To Buy Back Content Sites

By Rich Ord - Thu, 02/22/2007 - 1:04pm.

Jupitermedia may be sold to Getty Images, but it is reported (as I speculated yesterday) that CEO Alan Meckler will buy back all assets that are not Jupiterimages.

This means that internet.com would again go private with new owner Alan Meckler. This is similar to Alan Meckler's 1998 deal that sold Mecklermedia (and its Internet World tradeshow) to Penton Media with Alan buying back the websites which included internet.com. In 1999 internet.com went public and after the acquisition of Jupiter Research the company changed its name to Jupitermedia.

A Reuters article confirms the acquisition rumors, "Getty spokeswoman Deb Trevino confirmed that the companies are in talks. They are required to make a statement, given the move in their stock yesterday," she said. "What they put out tells the story. I don't see any need to comment further."

The reported offer for Jupitermedia is $9.60 a share. The buyback price wasn't revealed but "Alan Meckler has indicated he is willing to acquire those assets at a price that Getty has indicated is acceptable".