LiveJournal’s Blog Network and its 5.6 Million Bloggers To Be Acquired
Big blog news today, Six Apart has plans to purchase LiveJournal. The move has been seen as defensive being that Google and Microsoft have become serious about building blog networks. Why so serious about blogs and why right now? Well, a recent study showed that 7% of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the internet say they have created a blog and over 27% of online adults in the US read blogs regularly.
That being said, over 32 million US web users read blogs, opening up not only a vast funnel of information, but also a new medium for advertisers and public relations firms to use to target these readers. And of the almost 9 million US bloggers cited in the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a Six Apart (which owns Type Pad and Movable Type) / Live Journal merger will give Six Apart about 7 million of the world’s bloggers.
From eWeek: 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 Live Journal deal, which will be announced on Thursday, involves an undisclosed amount of cash and stock, eWEEK.com has confirmed.
The acquisition gives the 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.
