Digg sold to Betaworks for just $500k

SOCIAL NEWS WEB SITE Digg has been sold to technology development company Betaworks for just $500,000, despite once being valued at $175m.

Seven-year old Digg is a community based news ranking web site similar to Reddit, but in the past couple of years it has struggled to retain its once burgeoning user base. In October 2010, the company cut a third of its staff to avoid going under.

Despite once being valued at nearly $200m, Digg has been sold to New York based Betaworks for 500k, which will see the company combined with daily briefing service News.me.

On its web site, Betaworks said, "Digg is one of the great internet brands, and it has meant a great deal to millions of users over the years. It was a pioneer in community-driven news.

"We are turning Digg back into a startup. Low budget, small team, fast cycles. How? We have spent the last 18 months building News.me as a mobile-first social news experience.

"The News.me team will take Digg back to its essence: the best place to find, read and share the stories the internet is talking about. Right now."

Digg founder Kevin Rose said, "I've always been a fan of John's [Betaworks CEO] product vision and the companies he builds, funds, and advises. John understands the real-time nature of the web and how to capture and surface trends as they occur.

"Given his experience with bit.ly, news.me, and Chartbeat I can't wait to see what he does with Digg." µ