Taking a break form the normal spin-cycle of security news, assets from the once popular Digg.com have been sold for $500,000, or 0.0005 Instagrams (Instagram was purchased by Facebook for a cool $1 billion earlier this year).
At one point, Digg was valued at $175,000,000, but the shift to sites like Reddit (Digg’s longtime Web rival) and Twitter as an instant news source eventually caused the site’s decline.
Despite its decline, Digg still gets more than 16 million monthly visitors. In a statement, the company who purchased the last of Digg’s assets, Betaworks, said that it is one of the greatest Internet brands, “and it has meant a great deal to millions of users over the years. It was a pioneer in community-driven news.”
“We are turning Digg back into a startup,” a blog post explained. “Low budget, small team, fast cycles. How? We have spent the last 18 months building News.me as a mobile-first social news experience. The News.me team will take Digg back to its essence: the best place to find, read and share the stories the internet is talking about. Right now.”
All Things D has more on the deal, including the fact that 0.0005 Instagrams might be a bit low, as the deal wasn’t just cash only. In addition, TechCrunch says that the deal was likely worth some $16 million – and that LinkedIn, Betaworks, and the Washington Post all took a piece of the action.
This article’s headline was swiped from Twitter, and written by Jeff Jarmoc (@jjarmoc) who kindly allowed us to steal it. Thanks, Jeff!
