The b5media blog network has just announced its purchase of Level9 Media Inc., which operates its own blog network that includes the popular Starked group.

According to the press release issued by b5media, the acquisition is “the largest one made to date” by the network, which is the third-largest blog network, attracting more than three million unique visitors per month. This development will further cement b5media’s huge presence in the blogosphere.

From the said article, Level9’s blogs include:

Starked (NYC, San Francisco, LA and Washington, D.C.), which deliver industry news and gossip specific to each city. LA is focused on Hollywood and the film/television industry; NYC on media and publishing; and San Francisco on technology and money.

Dejuiced: Sports. All the sports news, gossip, players’ dirty laundry, events, and chat you can handle from serious sports fanatics.

Sirened: Level9’s answer to the never ending and ongoing life in political satire. Additionally, the site will also cover news on “corporate propaganda” because we really don’t think Enron was the first or the last of its kind.

Citizen Circus: A few familiar features and a few new ones, it’s social news for the mainstream audience who just want to find the most interesting stories and share their own.

To help push their efforts further, Venture Capital invested $4.5 million to help heave the promising UK blog network which draws close to 3 million readers daily. Such investments made from generous donors who see a promising future for aggressive blogging investments done today has been the obvious reason for such an enormous investment.

Wagner told the Sunday Times: “There are businesses that could have been massively successful but they were denied the resources to fast-track a fabulous idea. There’s got to be a different way of doing this.”

With the investment, a lot of things are being heard here and there as to what would be the next move of Shiny Media and where the money will be going to. With so much plans architected by Ashely Norris, answers to such rumors and queries are sure to be answered in the next couple of days.

I’ll be speaking with Ashley Norris tomorrow to find out more on Shiny’s plans. Commenting on his blog he says: “We have come a very long way in a short space of time with no money. The investment will help us make some of our more ambitious dreams realities.”

[tags]blog network, shiny media, mergers, acquisitions[/tags]

CSSVault a site that has been known to store different uniquely designed stuff has been acquired by Hostgator. CSSVault is a prized catch for Hostgator, considering that it boasts of a page rank of 9 with a daily page view averaging 12,000 to 17,000, 5,000 of which is unique.

“While I helped facilitate this sale a while ago (and there was a bit of a ‘quiet period’ going on with it), the go ahead to go public with it is here.

CSSVault, the venerable CSS directory was sold by BloggyNetwork to HostGator Web Hosting for a smooth $100,000.

Revenue and traffic are not going to be disclosed, but lets say the strong brand and strong (actual, and not wishful) potential was a big reason HostGator purchased it.

I will have a follow up interview with Brent Oxley, HostGator’s president soon. He has promised me that the site will be revamped soon. This isn’t a simple purchase – it’s an investment.”

The site was reportedly sold for $100,000.00 and is considered a bargain. With the potential revenue that Hostgator can get out of the site, this purchase price is bound to be covered up in no time.

Ahmed at Tech Soapbox argues that the time of blog networks has passed. The luster is gone, and while blog networks were the hot thing on the Web in the past year, it’s time for online entrepreneurs to think of other business models.

I remember a time when Blog Networks were the it thing. Everyone and their mother was setting up blog networks. People actually cared when a name was changed from ‘Pajama Media’ to ‘Open Source Media’ (though I do agree OSM doesn’t sound very good).

Blogs were the path to easy riches.

About time reality set in.

Perusing around, I came across this sale: Parents Behaving Badly for sale. On its own not very notable, but what was interesting was that they were under the b5Media umbrella. For those that don’t remember, the network recently announced 2 million in funding.

This sale sets off some questions.

These days we’re seeing blogs and blog networks being sold left and right. Heck even this very blog you’re reading has passed hands at least one time. Does this mean then that the golden age of blog networks has, indeed, passed? Does this mean that those who have sold know something that the rest of us don’t? Does this mean blog networks are going the way of the dodo?

Well, perhaps in a way, yes. That’s why people are looking for new things to do, new ways to earn. People foresee that there are bigger things and better things.

But then again there are still those blog and blog networks—those brands!—that remain strong. It’s hard to be a Blog Herald, or a Blogging Pro, or even a b5media or a Weblogs, Inc. because these are already established in the blogosphere.

That’s why there are the new startups that try to be different. The focus today is not just blogs and blogging, but new media and social media!

That’s why blog networks are not necessarily passé. Blog networks are just evolving, just like the rest of the world—and the Web.

You’ve heard them, read about them, and even written about them one time or another. They’re buzzwords. And they’re popular. Just for that, we’d like to send them to hell. You may be aware that Buzzword Hell has been part of the Splashpress Media blog network for some time now. But with the redesign and all, we’ve decided to re-launch the blog.

So from Web 2.0 to Folksonomy to Social Bookmarking to the use of Beta. Buzzword Hell has condemned them all. And we’re going to send more of them to the different circles of inferno. We’ll be buzzword hunting. And of course, we cannot do it without your help.

Buzzwords, anyone?

It’s another big news day for Splashpress Media (parent company of Blog Network Watch). The owner of various blog-related properties (such as the Blog Herald) has again acquired another high-profile site, Performancing. David Krug reports on the Blog Herald:

New York,NY — February 14th,2007 — SplashPress Media, owner of numerous sites including The Blog Herald, one of the oldest sites on the internet covering blogging news and new media, has announced it is acquiring the core assets of Performancing.com including the bloggers’ community and Performancing Metrics.

SplashPress Media operates and owns 30 blogs, and a variety of other online web properties. SplashPress Media has been online as a hosting company and a support agency for publishers for a few years before launching several blogs and acquiring others.

Performancing started as a service with the aim of “helping bloggers succeed.” The site focused on bringing together a set of tools that bloggers can use to enhance their blogging experience, including analytics, design and even monetization. First came the metrics package, then the community and the blog ad network.”

Only the Performancing Metrics and Community were part of the sale. The Performancing Partners blog ad network was not included.

Performancing will continue to operate as a separate division of Splashpress, though, similar to how the Blog Herald runs independently of Splashpress in terms of editorial content and management.

The Bloggy Network has announced that it has recently added Gadgetizer to its roster of blogs.

Bloggy Network started out as a very technology focused blog network, and we have since then diversified, but in recent weeks, we have been looking at our gadget offerings, and decided we needed a new and fresh site to join the network. We couldn’t be happier with our recent addition to the Bloggy Network as Gadgetizer covers the gamut of gadgetry being launched.

The Bloggy Network has been known to be tech-focused, particularly in its first year of existence, with popular geek-oriented blogs like ForeverGeek, and gadget-specific blogs under the “b” brand (laptops, cellphones, digital cameras, and the like). However, the network did not have a site focused on gadgets in general, until now. Having the Gadgetizer in its roster also adds to the brand factor, since Gadgetizer was fairly popuilar when it was still independent.

Our apologies for the blogging hiatus. You may be aware of Problogging, Inc.’s announcement that the Blog Network Watch has been sold. We had just finished migrating to our new server and switching to a new blogging platform (WordPress). No problems so far, except that migrating to new software makes us feel like we’re starting from scratch altogether.

First, let us introduce ourselves. We are Splashpress Media. We recently acquired the Blog Herald and its “cousins,” Blogger Jobs and this particular blog. We’re not exactly as well-known in the blogosphere as this blog’s previous owner, Problogging, Inc., since we’re a relatively new blog network. But we’re getting there! Right now we’re focusing on developing great content, and we’re hoping to continue the fine tradition of great quality and interactivity that this blog’s previous owner had with its sites.

For now, please expect some radical changes to the Blog Network Watch’s look and feel, as it is redesigned, along with the rest of our blogs. Oh, have we mentioned that the Blog Herald is one of them? Well, while the Herald is maintaining its independence from the rest of the network in terms of editorial stance, it gives us a warm, fuzzy feeling to be affiliated with such a great site.

So watch this space! Great things are coming ahead.

b5media is bidding in the Sitepoint thread to acquire the assets of Fine Fools, Paul Scriven’s network that he is currently selling.

One of our own former sites, Poker Moments is up for sale by David and others at Sitepoint.