Valleywag
We hear Michael Arrington is in advanced talks to acquire VentureBeat, a smaller tech blog which, like Arrington's TechCrunch, is trying to expand from the niche of covering startups. When Arrington issued a rant about the dangers of tech blogs raising venture capital, it was easy to dismiss his talk of a blog rollup as drunken fantasy. Arrington's concern: That his competitors, by raising money one by one, would make it financially impossible to assemble a "dream team" of bloggers. But why on earth would anyone accept a lower valuation just to be part of Arrington's team? Arrington, we're told, has tentatively secured venture backing from Eric Chin of Bay Ventures, a longtime business associate. That would give him the capital to buy up at least some of his rivals.
Even though Marshall has raised $320,000 for VentureBeat, he would obviously be the junior partner in any deal. Which points to the most implausible part of the two blogs' coming together: Would Matt Marshall, the Jimmy Olsen of the tech-blog world, really work for Arrington, who is surely its Lex Luthor?
Marshall and Arrington agree on perhaps only one thing: They're tired of handing a hefty share of ad revenues over to John Battelle's Federated Media, the ad network which represents both blogs. Combining forces might give them enough traffic to justify hiring some of their own salespeople. Is that worth putting up with Arrington's tirades and outbursts? If talks progress, Marshall would do well to ask for an Arrington premium. Would it not be ironic if the biggest obstacle to realizing the TechCrunch editor's dream proved to be Arrington himself?
(Photo of Arrington via Gagglescape; Marshall via Bub.blicio.us)
Comments
the meshing of facts, rumors and opinions. sounds dreamy.
Ugh. I sincerely hope this is just the usual VW rumor. VentureBeat is a great blog. I'd hate to see it folded into the TechCrunch steamrolling.
who cares. show us more pictures of that tart from business week.
@buzzkill: quite good
lol i don't think you could have found much worse of a pic of arrington. Can't imagine working for him, much less anything in the sack...
@buzzkill: Spencer Ante?
Bad idea, Matt. I visit techcrunch less and less each month that goes by. They are losing their audience growth --- check the stats --- things are slowing for them. I think they drag you down.
Matt, do not sell to that fuckhead.
You offer real journalistic reporting and TechCrunch only has biased crap. Arrington himself admit dispensing links based on "politics".
I read VentureBeat every day and ignore TechCrunch.
No.
wordpress + adwords = ???
wtf?
heh. jimmy olsen & lex luthor. that's humorous... i had them pegged as jordan & ewing
(btw, i agree... scary choice of photos there. rumpled mike + ghosty-faced marshall? srsly, unless you were trying to make a point i'd go with the cigar shot & matt's profile photo)
wtf, blogs aren't serious business, someone kick them off the internet
i'm waiting for arrington to show up with a diamond stud in his ear
venturebeat-techcrunch merger would remind me of daimler-chrysler.
Arrington's track record in business has been spotty at best.
@michaellamb: great googly-moogly , you can sure see that extra blog-added 30 pounds on Arrington
A signal that the rumors may be true?
[venturebeat.com]
They open the post with:
"Our good friend Mike Arrington of TechCrunch has news on the impending launch of Flickr Video..."
Good friend? Sucking up to the boss already?
@mizznike that line was bait ;)
Oh Mike? Mike's a pretty good guy. My friend Lisa had sex with him and she said he was really good in the sack and treated her like a queen.
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