I don’t care to comment much on NBC’s acquisitions, namely iVillage and Healthology. In some ways, they were pretty prescient and good fits with NBC’s offline strategy. But, clearly there were execution woes, who are we kidding. Oh, look, looks like I did indeed comment on them.
Anyway, the point of this post is simple: man times have changed. Back in 2000, everyone was looking for a B2B component to their business model. Ariba, Commerce One were trading at nosebleed multiples because they were B2B plays.
Today, it’s the opposite. Via Paid Content:
An NBC Universal spokesperson said iVillage will focus more on consumer health like YourTotalHealth.com. Healthology, acquired for $17.2 million under iVillage’s previous regime, relies on physician-generated content; the company considers it to be more B2B.
By deciding to cut back at Healthology, NBC is basically echoing the sentiment that online is a consumer play and the main way to make money is not by offering services to businesses (doctors) but rather, to regular Joe’s (or Jane’s in NBC’s case).
Back in December 2005, when News Corp. bought my old company and the brass at IGN pushed me out of the company, I was offered a gig of sorts at Healthology but I passed… that was when I started to think about what I could do in the consumer video space, and presto: WatchMojo.com was born. It’s funny how fast and quickly things change. That was a mere 26 months ago!
Anyway, the dealmaker in me says this is foolish on behalf of NBC Universal for a couple of reasons:
- NBC Universal, which is owned 80% by GE, should take Healthology out of the NBC Universal unit and put it in the GE Healthcare unit. GE Healthcare sells equipment to doctors… Healthology fits fantastically with that unit. Maybe it’s just me, but Jack Welch’s blood would be boiling here because Healthology is probably #1 or #2 in information for doctors and GE Healthcare is too… yet NBC Universal shutters it for a consumer play (that’s the right thing to do within the unit, but company-wide? Nope.)
- If GE Healthcare does not see a fit, fine… but then don’t shutter it, sell it. GE is legendary for investing, managing, and selling businesses at a profit. It bought Healthology for a relatively paltry $18M… it could flip it for more to a company like Thomson that is in the digital information business for professionals. Of course, Thomson is skewed towards finance and legal, but why not medical?
Anyway, sometimes I wonder why these companies manage with the blinders on… I assume there’s more to it than meets the eye.
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