Animal Planet buys Petfinder.com
Animal Planet is expanding its orbit.
The cable television channel, part of Discovery Communications Inc., said Thursday that it had acquired Petfinder.com, a popular website that facilitates pet adoptions, along with a firm that specializes in pet training videos.
Animal Planet declined to provide financial details. One source close to the deal said the Silver Springs, Md.-based company paid about $35 million.
With the purchases, Animal Planet diversified its portfolio in an attempt to become a bigger player in the booming pet market. Analysts say pet-related spending in the U.S. has soared to $38 billion a year.
Petfinder.com is a 10-year-old website based in Pittstown, N.J., with a database of 230,000 dogs, cats, pigs, horses and other animals available for adoption through animal shelters and rescue groups across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Tampa, Fla.-based PetsIncredible provides pet training videos. Last summer, it launched a broadband video service, Petvideo.com, with Petfinder.com that included videos of adoptable pets in shelters.
Animal Planet also announced a reorganization and formation of an Animal Planet Media Enterprises unit.
“This acquisition and reorganization solidifies our place as the leading information provider for all things animal,” Maureen Smith, general manager of Animal Planet, said in a statement.
Discovery Communications has four shareholders: publicly traded Discovery Holding Co., Cox Communications Inc., Advance/Newhouse Communications and founder John S. Hendricks. In the U.S., it also owns cable channels Discovery and TLC as well as Discovery Education and Cosmeo, an online homework help service.
