Selling the BlogoSphere Part 2: Why are the Geek new media/blogging pioneers selling out to the big corporates?

By Tom Foremski - October 10, 2005

. . .do they know something we don't?
By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

Why are the leading lights of this new media\blogging movement selling off key companies to large corporate entities that are considered clueless by the blogosphere?

Did those corporations get a copy of "Cluetrain Manifesto" for their birthday?

Within the last two weeks three deals have taken place. AOL acquiring Jason Calacanis' Weblogs Inc., VeriSign acquiring Dave Winers' Weblogs.com ping server; and VeriSign acquiring Nick Denton's Moreover Technologies.

Did these prominent leaders of the blogosphere take the money and run?

The valuations on those deals seem weak which suggests the owners couldn't see much upside ahead. Put some lipstick on the pig, I think was the expression sometimes used in investment banking circles. Well, if they were pigs, congratulations gentlemen, you got one over the suits.

And of course, the new owners might be more able to scale those assets across their broad infrastructure and customer base. Or they will have no idea what to do and will keep buying dated books on internet marketing :-)



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By Tom Foremski - October 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comment | Category: Media Watch
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Comments (6)

sutrostyle:

They are selling because they do not know how to make money on these, while it certainly takes money/resources to scale. It would not be simple at all for weblogs.com to make $5m in profits.

The real difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0 is that for web 1.0 companies, there was neither really a portal to sell out to, nor a possibility of Google/Yahoo implementing their idea, threatening their business.
Right now it's probably almost impossible to make another large (billion dollar IPO) internet company from scratch- 4 existing portals will either buy you before, or if you do not sell they will do implement it themselves, driving you out from the market.

This trend by the way suggests that there might not be Web 3.0 at all...

On another side note- there's a 5th multibillion dollar internet portal - Craigslist (it does not matter that now they are making only $40m /year) - but apparently Craig is not interested in all this Webs 1.0,2.0 etc- I do not even think he attended Web 2.0 conference make another large (billion dollar IPO) internet company from scratch- they will buy you before, and if you do not sell, will do it themselves, driving you out from the market.


See related - about Dave Winer selling out blogosphere - comic strip here:
http://comicstripblog.com/?p=174!


Tom Foremski - Silicon Valley Watcher [TypeKey Profile Page]:

Sutrostyle, I like your thinking because that's my thinking too. And Joe Kraus at JotSpot told me the same thing. It's that giant sucking sound, the giant computing platforms that Google, Yahoo and Ebay and Verisign, are building, offer a scale that cannot be matched by a new independent. Is there a crack in that strategy? I think there is and I'll post about it later, you can check if my reasoning is reasonable :-)


Web 3.0 = mobile, gaming, simulations, virtual worlds
Web 3.0 = BRIC countries + Korea + Eastern Europe + Iran

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRIC


Web 3.0 = mobile, gaming, simulations, virtual worlds
Web 3.0 = BRIC countries + Korea + Eastern Europe + Iran

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRIC


Tom Foremski - Silicon Valley Watcher [TypeKey Profile Page]:

Dimitar, that's a great way to look at Web 3.0. Actually,, to be fair, we should call it Web 0.3 because we are barely out the gate on these things :-)


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