eBaum's World Sells For $17.5 Million

HandHeld Entertainment will buy Rochester, N.Y.-based eBaumsworld from founder Eric Bauman for $17.5 million -- mostly cash -- with millions more in cash and stock possible over three years if the site performs well. HandHeld says eBaum's World made $1.6 million last year on $5.2 million of revenue. (Release via Paidcontent)

Before YouTube, if you wanted to find a video of a skateboarder falling down a flight of stairs or kids setting stuff on fire, you went to eBaum's World. But the key phrase there is "before YouTube." Since peaking around No. 300 on Alexa's list of the most-visited Web sites in early 2005, the site's popularity has drifted downward, dipping below 1,500 in early July. (Unclear how it ranked when Bauman founded the site in 1998 -- no stats that far back.)  eBaum's popularity did surge last month: Perhaps its target audience -- the lad-mag set -- is having an uneventful summer vacation. Compete says the site had 4 million visitors in June. Here's an Alexa chart comparing the site's traffic with YouTube and CollegeHumor...