CNET is owned by Ziff Davis (the United States, NASDAQ: ZD), which acquired the brand on 1 October 2024.[1][2] CNET was founded in 1994 in the United States and was independent until 2024.
Evidence: Ziff Davis, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-02-24, SEC EDGAR, 24 February 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
CNET was among the first technology news sites and was owned by CBS for over a decade. Ziff Davis acquired it in 2024, and it had earlier drawn criticism for publishing articles generated by artificial intelligence without clearly labelling them.
Sentences about CNET from Ziff Davis's latest annual filing[1], copied word for word.
CNET is a trusted digital media publication that provides expert information, hands-on lab testing, reviews and analysis on consumer technologies, services and trends, to help customers find exactly what they are looking for.
For nearly 30 years, CNET has covered a wide range of topics, including consumer electronics, smart home, money, wellness, and more.
The acquisition of CNET allowed us to reach a wider audience that is attractive to advertisers in the technology space.
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central. The brand is named more often than it was three years earlier.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Ziff Davis ownership tree →
See the full Ziff Davis brand portfolio (5) →
Ziff Davis controls 5 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in media & entertainment.
The 70 brands in newspapers & magazines on Brandtree belong to 16 owners. The largest is Reach, with 9; Ziff Davis has 4.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| BelfastLive | Reach | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| Beobachter | Ringier | 🇨🇭 Switzerland |
| Aftenposten | Schibsted Media | 🇳🇴 Norway |
| Condé Nast | Advance | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Country Life | Future | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| Car and Driver | Hearst | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Brisbane Times | Nine | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| ARQ | Grupo Clarín | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
Ziff Davis is a publicly listed company headquartered in New York, New York, United States, founded in 1927. Brandtree records 5 brands under its control, and it is listed as NASDAQ: ZD.
Ziff Davis published computer magazines from the 1980s, went through bankruptcy and several owners, and rebuilt itself as a digital media and internet services group. It now owns several of the technology sites that replaced the magazines it used to print.
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; CNET is not one of them.
Ziff Davis acquired CNET from Red Ventures. CNET was among the first technology news sites, was owned by CBS for over a decade, and had drawn criticism shortly before the sale for publishing articles generated by artificial intelligence without labelling them clearly. Press reports put the price near $100 million; neither party disclosed a figure.
The parent company of CNET is Ziff Davis, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Yes. CNET originated in the United States in 1994 and its owner, Ziff Davis, is also headquartered in the United States.
Ziff Davis completed its acquisition of CNET on 1 October 2024, after announcing the deal on 4 September 2024. The price was not disclosed.
CNET was an independent company from its founding in 1994 until Ziff Davis acquired it in 2024.
Yes. As of 9 October 2026, CNET is still owned by Ziff Davis. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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