There was this post the other day by M.G. Siegler citing an example of Disney owning both ESPN and Anaheim Mighty Ducks at the same time for a period and that Boston Red Sox is owned by The New York Times Company. This particular situation however, is not exactly comparable. Like the title said, it’s like Tap Tap Tap buying TUAW. Or the Red Sox buying the NYTimes.
I see it as purely a talent acquisition. The founder of the blog is after all a graphics and interface designer and he’s getting a position in the new parent company which is an app development house while a contributor gets to be chief editor.
In no situation can I expect this deal to make sense. The reason given? Shared vision of growing and reaching out to the Indonesian Mac and iOS communities. That’s bullshit. Come on. Sure it’s a shared vision, sure both parties would like those communities to grow (clearly for very different reasons) but giving that as a reason is purely press talk.
If the acquisition was by an investment or a holding/parent company who happened to have a stake in the other, there’d be no problems with that. It’d be exactly like Disney owning both ESPN and the Mighty Ducks, or like East Ventures owning Apps Foundry and Penn Olson. Oh wait.
Will the blog survive and maintain its course? I don’t see why not. Will it remain an independent blog? I doubt it, after all, it’d be run by an app company instead of by itself. So congratulations on the pile of cash, commiserations on the acquisition.
*Reposted and revised on DailySocial
