CBS, hoping to benefit from the boom in Internet stocks, is considering a plan to turn its Web assets into a public company, officials said Friday.
Mel Karmazin, CBS' chief executive officer, discussed the plan in a conference call Thursday with Wall Street analysts, calling it "one of several strategic options being looked at."
A source acknowledged CBS' (CBS) interest in selling to the public a portion of its Internet assets, which include a 38 percent stake in Marketwatch.com (MKTW) and its 12.5 percent stake in SportsLine USA (SPLN).
But he gave no further details and pointed to Karmazin's comments about the preliminary plan, which were published in Friday's Wall Street Journal.
Karmazin was reported to have said that the new unit could be owned jointly by CBS and Infinity Broadcasting (INF) -- itself a CBS spinoff -- that it might be called CBS.com, and could be used to invest in other Internet stocks. "If this is where people want to be, we want to be there to sell them advertising and have a piece of their commerce," Karmazin told the analysts.
Asked how soon CBS might go ahead with such a plan, Karmazin said: "It's maybe the top of the first inning."
The proposal reflects a trend by mainstream media to benefit from the Internet stock boom.
Time Warner (TWX) said it is exploring a joint venture with major Internet players and General Electric (GE). NBC is reported to be planning to either align itself with an Internet company, or sell off its Web assets.
