Mr. Shah led a buyout of Ziff Davis, a century-old magazine publisher whose titles chronicled the early tech boom, in 2010. The company was then acquired by J2 Global, which Mr. Shah eventually split into two pieces. One company, Ziff Davis, kept well-known publishing brands like Mashable, and the other kept a fax provider called eFax. But Mr. Shah said that he believed additional deals like the one for CNET would increase its profits. Mr. Shah said he decided to acquire CNET partly because it is well-known industry brand, and its sizable audience will give Ziff Davis greater clout with advertisers looking to reach tech consumers.

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Persons: Shah, Ziff Davis, Ziff Davis’s Organizations: J2 Global, Mashable, CNET, CBS, Red Ventures