Popular social-driven news site Digg wants to be bought and they’ve been working with an investment bank to make it happen. At this point it’s rumored that there are four companies after them. TechCrunch reports that there are two media/news companies and then two “big” Internet companies. Any guesses what the two “big” Internet companies are? Why of course, it’s Google and Microsoft. Who else would it be?
Part of me wants to see someone other than an Internet giant like Google or Microsoft purchase Digg, simply for the reason that both companies already have too much influence. Google obviously wants Digg partially for the reason that they could make big bucks off of advertising, although Microsoft does have that three-year advertising deal with Digg. Another thing that came to mind is that once again, Google would be buying users and not technology. Digg has a lot of users, there’s no doubt about that, and that’s probably their biggest selling point. But, does Google really need to be buying more users?
Whatever happens, it should be interesting. Thus far Digg has received $11.3 million dollars in funding and the likely bid for them will be somewhere between $200-$225 million. Not a bad pay day, really. Some say this is low while others say that Kevin Rose and company should take it an run because at least they would be able to say that they were a Web 2.0 success story. Not everyone gets to experience that. Of course nothing has been confirmed at this point so there’s no telling if anything will ever come of it.
I remember Kevin Rose as an amiable geek on Tech TV. Now he’s about to get a huge payday. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Tech TV was where he got his start!
8O I think if either of them bought Digg they should leave as it is…not mess with it.
I agree with that, but the question is whether they could restrain themselves enough to hold back. Google has done a pretty good job with YouTube, but I don’t know what Microsoft would do if they bought them.
For $200-$225 million that seems like a good deal. I thought Digg would be in the billions but apparently not,so go for it.
Sometimes a company will make an acquisition just so a competitor won’t snap-up the company. Maybe that’s what Google has in mind. They don’t really need it or want it but they don’t want Microsoft to have it. Just a thought.
I would have thought so as well, but even Alexa shows that their growth hasn’t been that great over the last year:
[alexa.com]
When Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion it was growing like a weed, and it still continues to.
That’s true, and I just don’t see where Digg would fit into either of the companies.