del.icio.us 2.0 announced as Digg deal eats dirt for Google

Davey Winder
Sunday, 27 July 2008 19:20

Business IT - Networking

Social media is meant to break the news, but of late has been making the news instead. Hot on the heels of Google apparently walking away from a potential $200 million acquisition of Digg, comes the news that one of the old men of social media might be heading back into the spotlight with the launch of del.icio.us 2.0

As reported here at iTWire just a few days ago, Google has been interested in adding Digg to the Google collective. In fact, we are led to understand that the two companies had got to the point of the all important due diligence stage of the possible $200 million deal.

According to some reports Google decided to walk away from the negotiations, informing Digg on Thursday or Friday. The TechCrunch reporter states that "Two sources close to the companies suggested that some issue that came up during technical due diligence was to blame. One source said that the issue was more personality driven, and that Google decided after spending more time with Digg’s top team that there just wasn’t a fit."

Which leaves Digg without a buyer, again. Back in 2006 there were reports that Digg was possibly being acquired by print media giant News Corporation with a $150 million price tag. But that came to nothing.

The following year, Valleywag was suggesting a $300 million deal was close to completion, with more print media names squarely in the frame: the New York Times or Washington Post being red hot favourites.

Earlier this year speculation was rife that UK newspaper owners the Guardian Media Group were interested in Digg, although the price had dropped to around $125 million by now.

TechCrunch, however, now suspect that it will be back to the grind of raising finance the good old fashioned way, as the company which helped both Ning and Slide with recent $500 million financing rounds had been hired by Digg to represent them in the Google sale.

Of course, all that any of this proves is that Digg is the subject of constant media speculation regarding its ownership and finances. It is actually hard to recall when Digg was not rumoured to be up for sale, or close to completing a deal for that matter.

So where does del.icio.us fit into the social media landscape, and are we finally on the verge of seeing the almost fabled del.icio.us 2.0 service launching at long last? Read on for more...

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