The move would mean that Mashable might have enough cash to keep on going after spending a fortune trying to get into video broadcasts.

Founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005, the company confirmed in August that it was seeking a buyer..

Lots of online media outfits are running out of cash and most are sitting around hoping to be bought by some big outfit rather than going it alone. They are not helped by the crash of online advertising and the tendency of advertising departments on insisting on using adverts which render the sites unreadable. This has led to many readers adopting AdBlock technology. Magazines responded with even more annoying adverts to whitelist sites, so they can continue to run their annoying adverts which rendered the site unreadable.

In some cases, magazines might have been saved by shooting the advertising manager.

Mashable is one of many newer online media companies running low on cash and seeking financing. Hopes of creating profitable new digital behemoths have given way to more realistic expectations of a sale to a larger company

New York based Ziff Davis is a 90 year old publishing company which was at the forefront of computing industry reporting.

As print-ad sales declined, the company expanded online with websites such as AskMen.com, Geek.com and the blog ExtremeTech. The company was sold to internet-services provider J2 Global in 2012 for $167 million.

Vivek Shah, who led the Ziff Davis division, was named chief executive officer of J2 Global in September. He has pushed to expand the online publishing business. Ziff Davis unsuccessfully sought to buy Gawker Media in August 2016.