Sun owners expand Internet holdings

The Greenspun family today announced a deal to expand its media holdings by buying two Internet operations, the website domain name vegas.com and the Internet service provider vegas.net.

Vegas.com is a city guide Web site, featuring information about Las Vegas entertainment, restaurants, real estate, conventions and travel. Vegas.com says it gets about 5 million hits per month. Vegas.net says it has about 1,000subscribers.

The Greenspun family's Vegas Deluxe site is already one of the most popular in Nevada and links to its print publications. They are the Las Vegas Sun daily newspaper, the Las Vegas Weekly alternative newspaper, the Las Vegas Life monthly magazine and the Showbiz entertainment guide.

Vegas Deluxe says it gets about 6 million hits per month.

Danny Greenspun, an executive at Vegas Deluxe and the family's print publications, said vegas.com represents an opportunity to reach both more locals and tourists via the Internet.

The relationship between vegas.com and Vegas Deluxe has yet to be determined.

"There will be strong ties to other sites but it will have its own identity," Greenspun said. "Our intention is to turn vegas.com into a full-fledged Las Vegas hub where people interested in Las Vegas will be able to find absolutely everything they need, including search capabilities on Las Vegas."

"We're already the most-traficked site, now we'll be the most comprehensive."

The price paid to Orix Communications for vegas.com and vegas.net wasn't disclosed.

Orix owner Kerry Rogers said he sold because he received a good offer.

Vegas.com is supported by banner advertising; vegas.net is supported by its subscribers, who pay $18.95 monthly for Internet access. Both vegas.com and vegas.net were run as a single business, employing 20 people, Rogers said.

Some of those employees will be interviewed about jobs with the Greenspuns. Rogers is an Internet gambling pioneer but neither of the businesses sold to the Greenspuns involve gaming.

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