Google Abandons Digg Deal

Toward the beginning of last week, Google was in negotiations to purchase Digg for somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million. But sometime later in the week, TechCrunch reports, Google decided to walk from the deal; Digg didn’t find out until late Thursday or Friday:

“Google was in the due diligence stage of the deal, where they peer deep into Digg’s technology and financial statements,” the report said. “Most term sheets are non binding, so anything that gives the buyer pause can be used as an excuse to walk away—but generally the buyer already has a very good idea what they are getting well before the term sheet stage.”

So what happened? One source in the report blamed it on a technical issue during the due diligence stage, while another said it was more of a personality issue between the parties. Either way, Digg isn’t going to look all that desirable to other companies now that Google has “left them at the altar,” as the article put it.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.