In other acquisition news today,
Techcrunch reported that Cond?©
Nast, owner of Wired and other magazines/websites, has acquired Boston-based Reddit.
I pinged Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian about this and he confirmed to me that
they have been acquired, “for an undisclosed sum”.
Reddit is another to have been extensively profiled by Read/WriteWeb. Back
in July we noted that Reddit was integrating
its software into Slate.com, the venerable Webzine currently owned by
Washington Post. The reason was to give Slate readers “a new way to find
and discuss its best content.” I’m assuming Reddit will be similarly
integrated into Wired.
Slate.reddit is populated automatically via Slate.com’s RSS feeds – so there
are no manual submissions, as on the original reddit.com. All that Slate readers
need to do is vote and comment. Back in July I asked Alexis what led to the
Slate deal:
“Alexis told me that “the relationship with Slate began when
their articles started popping up on reddit shortly after we launched last
June.” That was followed by numerous other front page stories on reddit,
at which point emails were exchanged between Reddit management and Slate.”
At that time he told me there are some other similar white label projects in
the works. Well looks like Wired has gone and bought the whole company, instead
of just licensing the technology!
Also check out our Personalized
News: A Market Overview post, which went into detail about Reddit’s
technology.
I’ve asked Alexis for more details about the Wired deal, so I’ll update this
post when he replies.
UPDATE: Co-founder Steve Huffman from Reddit told me:
“We will certainly be collaborating with wired, but we also be
collaborating with the other CN properties such as style.com and
other sites affiliated with the company’s newspaper groups. We
haven’t worked out all of the specifics yet, however.
The first order of business will be getting a lay of the land and
seeing what we can do for whom.”
Also the official press release is now out, which has this quote from General Manager of Wired Digital Kourosh Karimkhany:
“Our goal will be to build Reddit as an independent company by collaborating with Wired through the integration of its core technology, and by offering partnerships to allow other companies to do the same.”
The PR notes too that Reddit now has over one million unique users a month. Plus WiredÄôs parent company, Cond?© Nast, has already used Reddit technology to launch a beta site, Lipstick.com, for the social filtering of celebrity news.
RedditÄôs technology will be used by Cond?© Nast to “unleash the power of the many communities touched by Cond?© Nast to enhance our Web sites by highlighting news that matters to them,Ä? said Sarah Chubb, President of Cond?©Net, the online division of Cond?© Nast.
Reddit, based in Boston, will relocate to San Francisco where Wired magazine and Wired Digital are based. The four founders will continue to direct Reddit as Wired Digital employees.
