As a blogger and optimizer, I am always updated with the latest news and happenings inside the technology and internet world. News about companies acquiring other companies either to lower down their competition, to strengthen their market or to further build up their brands fascinates me. Stories like Facebook acquiring Instagram and now Betaworks buying Digg never fails to amaze me a lot.

Digg is acquired by Betaworks for a price of $500k (or probably more since the pricing is still under discussion based on tech websites close to the companies involve). Betaworks is the company behind the services bit.ly, news.me, Chartbeat and other successful startups and products.




Here is the official statement from Digg's CEO Matt Williams about Betaworks acquiring Digg:

Today marks the next stage in Digg's future.

Believe it or not, it's been seven years since Digg launched. To date, we've had over 350M Diggs, 28M Story Submissions and 40M Comments. We're extremely proud to have helped pioneer social voting on the web.

......

We couldn't be happier to announce that the next generation of Digg will live on with the team from Betaworks. Betaworks is combining Digg with News.me, a Betaworks company with an iPad app, iPhone app and daily email that delivers the best stories shared by your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Digg will join a portfolio of products developed by Betaworks designed to improve the way people find and talk about the news. Betaworks founder John Borthwick will be the CEO of the new Digg.

Back to the selling price of Digg, if you guys can remember, Google is one of the many giant companies who offered Digg and its founder Kevin Rose a great price tag for the said site. Back in July 2008, TechCrunch posted an article saying that "Google In Final Negotiations To Acquire Digg For "Around $200 Million". Imagine that, from a very lucrative $200 Million (above 8 billion pesos in Philippine money when multiplied by 42 pesos if my math is correct) down to $500 thousand. But then again, it's better than nothing right? With Digg's traffic and income slowly declining, I think, it's a good move for Digg.com to accept what Betaworks has to offer.

So what's next for Digg?

"Betaworks is rebuilding Digg from scratch in just 6 weeks and wants your input" . This is the latest buzz today about that story.

According to Rethinkdigg.com:

As betaworks and Digg both announced on their blogs, we are taking over Digg and turning it back into a startup. What they didn’t mention is that we’re rebuilding it from scratch. In six weeks.

On August 1, after an adrenaline and caffeine-fueled six weeks, we’re rolling out a new v1. With this launch, we’re taking the first step towards (re)making Digg the best place to find, read and share the most interesting and talked about stories on the Internet — and we want your help.

So what does this news means to us? fans and users of Digg.com who loves to vote and share each others Digg submission stories?

Let us all wait and find out till August 1 of this year.

About The Author:

Ron Leyba is a Filipino Blogger And Optimizer. He recently posted about the 3 Reasons Why You Should Keep Your Secrets Away From Social Networking Sites at his own blog.

Also, read his guide on How To Check If Your Yahoo Mail Password Is Leaked! [With Solution] posted here at FilipinoBloggersWorldwide.Com.