Consolidation in the blog publishing business begins as the company behind Movable Type and TypePad adds a popular network to its portfolio.
Six Apart Ltd., the small software firm
founded by childhood sweethearts Ben and Mena Trott, is set to make a big splash
with the acquisition of Danga Interactive Inc.'s LiveJournal blogging
network.
The deal, which will be announced on
Thursday, involves an undisclosed amount of cash and stock, eWEEK.com has
confirmed.
The acquisition gives the San Mateo,
Calif.-based Six Apart a major boost in the blog publishing business and a
legitimate shot at staying relevant in the face of stiff competition from Google
Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
Google has a commanding share of the market with its Blogger and Blog*Spot services, while Microsoft
is looking to gain traction with the recently launched MSN Spaces platform.
With LiveJournal added to its portfolio
of blog software products, Six Apart automatically becomes a big player.
LiveJournal, which powers a network of blogs, Web forums, social networking and
content aggregation, has a user base of more than 5.6 million.
Six Apart already has approximately 1
million paying users of its TypePad and Movable Type services.
Click here to read eWEEK
Labs' review of Movable Type.
The LiveJournal deal is the second
major acquisition since Six Apart secured a first round of venture capital
funding led by Japan's Neoteny Co. Ltd. In July, Six Apart purchased UBlog, a French blog software firm.
Neoteny CEO and founder Joi Ito
declined to discuss the LiveJournal purchase and directed queries to company
executives in the United States.
LiveJournal began as a hobby project
for Oregon teenager Brad Fitzpatrick and blossomed into a popular tool for
college kids to chronicle their daily lives. The service runs on an open-source
platform. The LiveJournal service is free, but a premium version is available
for $25 a year.
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