Digg bidding war denied

DIGG IS NOT FOR SALE. Seriously. No... really this time. Even if you came along with $300m in your pocket and a brain the size of a peanut, Digg's Jay Adelson will not sell you the company. So says the man himself to Business Week magazine.

We have to wonder if this is like all those other times Digg wasn't for sale.

"Rumors about a bidding war involving Google and Microsoft have created such a stir we feel compelled to tell you all directly that they are completely inaccurate," Adelson posted to Digg's company bog in March - shortly before industry insiders say that Google walked away from a deal to buy the company.

Contradicting Adelson, "We've had various companies approach us all the time, " said founder Kevin Rose in February.

"We get asked [if we're for sale] every day," said Adelson earlier this year, before denying that Digg was on the block.

Which seemed to directly contradict his own statement from October last year. "If somebody can get us faster to where Kevin and I want to go... and of course pay enough money for us... then rock'n'roll," Adelson told the Guardian.

In fact, doing a simple Google News search for "Digg sale" turns up around 12,000 pages. A cursory glance through them reveals about half of them with Adelson saying Digg isn't for sale... and about another half with Adelson baiting potential buyers.

But this time, seriously, the social news site isn't on the chopping block. Having just raised another round of funding, Adelson is now convinced that he is going to have to do things the old-fashioned way: build his company to the point that it's actually making enough money to break even.

"Now I am pressured to keep costs reasonable and focus more on the top-line revenue, which we really haven't done ever," he told the Weeklings.

No, Jay, that's because you've spent all your time standing on street corners.

But regardless, Adelson is now a reformed man and has a plan to get Digg back on track. And he certainly won't be distracted by anybody else who might offer hundreds of millions of dollars for his company. Because, after all, habits of a lifetime are easy to change, right?

Or is Jay onto a world-weary double bluff - just reminding everyone that Digg is for sale by remarking (again) that it's not?

My head is spinnning. µ