Online Media M&A Update 3: Yahoo! Acquires Bix

Privately held online contest site Bix is the latest in Yahoo!'s acquisition spree - Yahoo! has acquired Flickr, del.icio.us, Upcoming.org and Jumpcut over the past eighteen months and MyBlogLog, Kenet Works, and Bix in the past 24 hours. The Bix deal is expected to close in March, but terms were not disclosed.

Carly Mayberry at The Hollywood Reporter also notes:
Yahoo! will retain Bix's 16 employees, while Bix founder Mike Speiser will become VP community at Yahoo! in its Communities, Communications and Front Doors group, where he will drive such products as Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! 360, Yahoo! Photos and Bix.

Bix has a slightly different spin on the social networking, user generated content craze. They host and enbale user created contests (which reminded me of Am I Hot or Not?) on a range of topics - karoke, video, photos, whatever. Here's a singing faceoff to whet your appetite.

Yahoo!Video vs. Google Video/YouTube Bix contest anyone?