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Daily Candy Auction to Set Pace For Web Deals

Robert Pittman, former American Online official, has put his small web business, called Daily Candy, up for sale, a deal which will be an important measure for the pace and valuation of web deal making, writes The Wall Street Journal. After buying a controlling stake in Daily Candy - which produces urbane email newsletters that make daily shopping, food and media recommendations - in 2003 for $3.5 million, Pittman could sell the business for more than $100 million. Some potential buyers fear that all the best web properties have already been bought, meaning the remaining buyers may have to pay high prices for marginal properties.

Publishers worry that advertising dollars are moving online and away from television, newspapers and magazines, as internet media transactions over the past 18 months have attracted top valuations.

Electronic and traditional publishers are eager to acquireiInternet-advertising properties. Media players including News Corp, Dow Jones & Co., and E.W. Scripps Co. have all made internet-related acquisitions.