The continuing fascination of the big media/techno/whatever companies for anything remotely considered social media, is being reinforced today by the news that social media site Digg is apparently on the cusp of being sold. The potential buyers reportedly are Google, Microsoft and a couple of other media companies, while the purchase price is in the $200 million to $225 million range. Ok, not up there in the MySpace or Facebook realm, but pretty healthy for something that in common with most other social media sites offers almost nothing in terms of revenues. But what does that have to do with running a business? This isn't the first time acquisition rumors have swirled around the company. More than two years ago, it seemed that Yahoo was considering buying the site. Instead, Yahoo launched its own social media effort, Yahoo Buzz, but that was a miserable failure and doesn't appear to have gained as much traction as Digg. Numerous other companies have faltered in their efforts to compete with Digg. AOL two years ago revamped Netscape as a Digg-imitator, but the project never captured the same kind of interest as Digg did. Shortly after it launched, Jason Calacanis, then general manager of Netscape, tried to lure Digg's top users to his site with a $1,000 a month offer to migrate. But whatever happens, some sucker will buy Digg for dumpster loads of money, then a couple of years from now write off all the millions. Take a deep breat, then do it all over again... Anyone want to buy Skype?
.
Nuff said!!!
Comment Preview