Radio One Buys Social Networking Firm Community Connect

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 11, 2008 - 6:50am.

Lanham, Md. - Looking to further broaden its focus outside of radio, Radio One, a radio broadcasting company that primarily targets African-American and urban listeners, said that it has paid $38 million to acquire New York-based Community Connect Inc. (CCI), an operator of several niche social networking websites.

CCI owns sites such as BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com and AsianAve.com. The company said that its sites have more than 20 million members combined.

"We believe that they are a great complement to our existing radio, TV and online properties," said Alfred Liggins III, the president and CEO of Radio One, adding that his company's goal is to become "the clear number one in the African-American online space."

Radio One, which owns or operates 53 radio stations, in recent months has been trying to diversify its approach.

In December 2006, it purchased Giant, a magazine targeting urban consumers, and also holds a significant stake in TV One, a cable network targeting African-Americans.

Ben Sun, the founder and president of CCI, will continue to run the company, which has about 100 employees.