In New York story, headlined "CBS buys 35 percent stake in
Medscape Web site," please read in first paragraph ... on
Thursday ... (corrects day)
Corrected repetition follows:
NEW YORK, July 8 (Reuters) - CBS Corp. <CBS.N>, which owns
the No. 1 U.S. television network, on Thursday jumped into the
growing online market for health care information and products,
saying it will buy a 35 percent stake in health Web site
Medscape Inc.
Under terms of the transaction, CBS will license its
trademark and logo to privately held Medscape, and provide
promotion and branding, with a total value at $150 million over
seven years.
In exchange, CBS will get a 35 percent equity stake in
Medscape, which operates www.medscape.com, a site for medical
professionals, with more than 1.1 million registered members.
CBS said the companies will work together to launch a Web
site for consumers, cbs.medscape.com, with CBS providing
editorial content for the site. Medscape will develop special
online reports to complement CBS healthcare programming.
Online health and medical information is a hot trend in the
already overheated Internet market. In the past few months,
several corporate giants forged alliances with medical Web
sites, including Reader's Digest Association Inc. <RDA.N> with
online medical resource WebMD Inc.; America Online Inc. <AOL.N>
with drkoop.com <KOOP.O>; and Healtheon Corp. <HLTH.O>, the
pioneer in Internet-health based health data, with WebMD.
A CBS spokesman said the investment is its largest in a new
media company since it took a 38 percent stake in
MarketWatch.com Inc. <MKTW.O> in 1997, and formed a joint
venture to start a financial news and information site.
"Along with sports and finance -- sectors in which we
already hold Internet investments -- health is one of the
leading areas of interest among Internet users," Mel Karmazin,
CBS chief executive, said.
REUTERS
Rtr 10:52 07-08-99
Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service |
