New York - CBS (NYSE: CBS) announced on Thursday that it has agreed to acquire CNET Networks (NASD: CNET), a technology publishing company that operates sites including News.com, ZDNet, GameSpot, TV.com and MP3.com, in a deal valued at $1.8 billion. CBS will pay $11.50 per share, an impressive 45% premium over CNET's share price at closing on Wednesday; CNET's board has unanimously approved the deal.

San Francisco - CNET Networks (NASD: CNET) is expected to announce a broad expansion of its editorial and advertising partnership with Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), sources from both companies told AllThingsD.com. Under the deal, CNET will become the major supplier of technology news and product reviews on Yahoo. Yahoo will also sell some CNET ad inventory, while CNET will sell ads on some areas of Yahoo.

*A correction has been made to this story.

San Francisco - Technology publisher CNET Networks (NASD: CNET) said on Wednesday that it will lay off 120 employees, or about 4-5% of its worldwide staff, as part of a plan to "put greater emphasis on its strategic priorities, which include focusing on its leading brands, driving greater efficiencies throughout the business, and reducing costs," the company said in a regulatory filing.

San Francisco - Loomia announced on Wednesday the launch of SeenThis?, an application that lets social network members see what their friends and group affiliations are reading and viewing on the sites of Loomia launch partners The Wall Street Journal (NYSE: NWS), NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and CNET Networks (NASD: CNET). The application will allow Facebook members, for instance, to see which WSJ.com articles or streaming NBC TV episodes are currently popular among their Facebook friends, as well as among members of the various groups they belong to on Facebook, such as their university's.

New York - A group of investment funds led by Jana Partners has taken a 21% stake in technology publisher CNET Networks (NASD: CNET), and is seeking to oust the company's current directors and take a majority of its board, The New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the proposal. Other entities involved in the proposal -- which CNET has rejected, sources told The Times -- include Sandell Asset Management, Spark Capital and entrepreneur Paul Gardi.

San Francisco - CNET Networks, an online publisher of technology news and provider of entertainment sites, announced that it has sold its Webshots photo-sharing service to American Greetings for $45 million.

Sausalito, Calif. - Former CNET Networks CEO Shelby Bonnie, who resigned last year amid the company's stock options backdating investigation, on Tuesday announced the launch of his new venture, a non-partisan politics information site called Political Base. The ad-supported site will emulate the wiki format where any user can contribute, and focus on providing information on national, state and local elections and candidates. "We've made a database of people. We've made a database of issues. We've made a database of advocacy groups. We've used the (Federal Election Commission) data," Bonnie told CNET News.com. Along with Bonnie, Political Base is also staffed by former CNET employees Mike Tatum, David Snider, Ethan Lance and Andy McCurdy.

San Francisco - An informal inquiry into stock options granting practices at technology publisher CNET Networks has been upgraded to a formal investigation, the company said in its second quarter earnings statement.

San Francisco - CNET Networks' TV.com, a content and community site for TV fans,  on Monday announced the launch of four new original online video programs. "TurboVision," "Prime Times Past," "Extreme Beauty Time with Quentin" and "The Burning Question" will be available to the site's 19 million monthly users.

New York - News Corporation and NBC Universal on Tuesday announced a multi-year deal with CNET Networks to provide content for their premium online video joint venture. CNET, which owns sites including TV.com, GameSpot and MP3.com, will provide thousands of clips to the service, as well as distribute the new site's library of licensed content to its 129 million unique monthly users. The News Corp./NBCU video site is set to launch later this summer on the sites of distribution partners including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo and Comcast.