TechCrunch Wants to Merge With Blogosphere, Kill CNET
But we're apparently wrong! TechCrunch doesn't want to sell to CNET. TechCrunch wants to kill CNET. How? By merging with a bunch of other leading blogs and blog networks, raising a bunch of money, and burying the bastards.
TechCrunch proprietor Mike Arrington outlined his world-domination plans last night in a rambling manifesto. He included some patented TechCrunch attention to detail--at the beginning of the post, we, Silicon Alley Insider, Inc., were said to be raising $2-$3 million and at the end we were said to be raising $3-$5 million--and he shared the secret blogging formula that has made TechCrunch the industry standard: Don't just report news--haul off and belt people in the nose! (We remember when he did that to us! Ouch!)
Anyway, the point of Mike's manifesto was to tell us and other blog networks not to raise $2-$3 million or $3-$5 million or whatever, but to merge into a blog dream team and crush CNET. Because if we do raise a bunch of money, Mike says, we'll set a sky-high valuation benchmark, and then we won't be able to merge anymore.
Well, Mike, we must admit we're not 100% averse to setting a sky-high valuation benchmark, but we do like this merging concept, at least in theory. We also like TechCrunch, so we'd be happy to talk. We'd even be happy to kill CNET with you if that's really the goal, although we would secretly hope that we could find more interesting things to do.
So let us know where/when we can grab a beer and discuss this dream-team world domination plan. In the meantime, we'll continue to raise our $2-$3 million or $3-$5 million or whatever, set our sky-high valuation benchmark, and explore our (many!) other strategic alternatives.
See Also:
Blogs are a Disruptive Technology
CNET To Buy TechCrunch for $100 Million?
TechCrunch $100 Million? The Outrage!
Business Magazines Getting Clobbered
The Blog Dream Team, very cool, that's what bloggers in the spanish bloggosphere are learning to do in order to compete with alt1040
Typo: "sky-high valiuation benchmark"
SAI, you are a world-class professional news, information, research and opinion provider. Be patient. In the not distant future, you will think about merging with TechCrunch... and you will just chuckle.
Of course, he's been down this road before, a little - http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/22/silicon-valley-could-use-a-downturn-right-about-now/
It could end up being a cyclical system.
http://innonate.com/2008/03/19/i-want-in/
;-P
-Stiennon
here is my advice;
stay as separate sites, but come up with a rating system (like digg or technorati's "authority") among your articles and make a widget for your combined feeds..
so give the community the ultimate blogging feed widget that parses feeds from many sites at once and gives the reader the content he wants according to his/her settings.. the settings could be a combination of ratings, categories, websites..
like; give me 10 feed items every half an hour.. 3 of them must be from this site, remaining 7 should be under the hardware announcements category from all available sites with a rating of at least 5/10
and so on..
just come up with a way to make rss not so "really simple"
You have to wonder what he was drinking...one of the most bizarre posts I've ever read on TC. How about where he accuses bloggers of being too competitive with each other to backlink for fear of being "crushed", then calls on his "dream team" to merge in spite of that little problem? SAI's take on it is entertaining all the same - in fact, much funnier than the post that inspired it.
HAHAHA - HENRY! I thought you had issue with sky-high valuations. You have been so conservative in the past..thanks for the chuckle...(actually, more like a guffaw-fest)
Andrew
The Disciplined Investor
http://www.thedisciplinedinvestor.com/blog/2008/03/01/financial-jargon/