Ziff Davis sold DownDetector, Speedtest, and more to Accenture for $1.2 billion

Communications company Ziff Davis has entered into a definitive agreement to Sell ​​the entire contact departmentincluding nearly six international fixed broadband, mobile, Wi-Fi and incident detection brands, has been acquired by Accenture in a $1.2 billion cash deal, the company said Tuesday.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis is the parent company of CNET.

The deal includes the DownDetector, OklaSpeedtest, Ekahau, RootMetrics and all of their assets. Ziff Davis reported that these brands generated $231 million in revenue in 2025, representing 16% of the company’s total cash income.

Ziff Davis has owned communication brands since its initial purchase of Ookla in 2014. Other brands, including DownDetector, Ekahau, and RootMetrics, have been acquired over the years.

During Tuesday’s earnings call, Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah acknowledged that asset sales “have not historically been common” at the company, but described the communications division as a success that has delivered strong returns on investment.

Shah also noted that Ziff Davis sees opportunities in its core business of digital media markets.

“We believe that fear in digital media markets presents us with a number of opportunities,” Shah said. “Just as we were the company that successfully navigated the analog-to-digital shift, we believe we have the people, platforms, and expertise to navigate the AI ​​transformation.”

While Ziff Davis and Accenture have finalized their deal, the deal will take several months to close. In the meantime, Ziff Davis will continue to operate its communications business as usual.

Once the deal is completed, Ziff Davis said it will use the funds from the sale for “general corporate purposes” and “fund aggressive capital allocation activities” in accordance with outstanding debt.