Communications company Ziff Davis has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its entire connectivity division, comprising nearly half a dozen international fixed, mobile and Wi-Fi networking and incident detection brands, to Accenture in a $1.2 billion cash deal, the company reported Tuesday.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis is the parent company of CNET.
The offer includes the DownDetector, OoklaSpeedtest, Ekahau and RootMetrics and all their assets. Ziff Davis reports that these brands generated $231 million in revenue in 2025, which represented 16% of the company’s total cash inflow.
Ziff Davis has owned connectivity brands since its initial purchase of Ookla in 2014. Other brands, including DownDetector, Ekahau and RootMetrics, have been acquired over the years.
During an earnings conference call Tuesday, Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah acknowledged that asset sales “have never been common” at the company, but touted the connectivity division as a success that has generated strong returns on investment.
Shah also indicated that Ziff Davis sees opportunities in its core business, digital media markets.
“We believe the fear in digital media markets presents us with a number of opportunities,” Shah said. “Just as we are the company that successfully made the transition from analog to digital, we believe we have the people, platforms and experience to manage the transition to AI.
Although Ziff Davis and Accenture have finalized their agreement, the transaction will take several months. In the meantime, Ziff Davis will continue to operate its connectivity business as usual.
Once the deal is finalized, Ziff Davis says it will use the proceeds from the sale for “general corporate purposes” and to “fund robust capital allocation activities” in accordance with outstanding debts.
