AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Viacom Shows Off New Baby, Babunga - Red Herring

The Nickelodeon unit of Sumner Redstone’s Viacom, best known for bringing the world SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron, and iCarly, Monday said it has acquired Babunga, a network of parenting web sites based in the Netherlands.

Babunga’s sites, including BabyNamesWorld.com and wikiparenting.com, have been incorporated into ParentsConnect.com, a parenting portal and social network created by Viacom’s Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group.

Terms were not disclosed, but the deal puts Viacom, owner of MTV Networks, DreamWorks, and Paramount Pictures, into competition with sites like Babycenter, ivillage Parenting, and Club Mom.

In 2003, Dutch search engine consulting firm Tribal Internet Marketing, noting the popularity of baby name searches, launched BabyNamesWorld.com. The company later rolled out wikiparenting.com and 3DPregnancy.com and in 2005, created Tribal Internet Projects as a separate parent company for the startup sites.

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