Nobody has covered the beauty pageant of startup contestants and venture judges better than TechCrunch. They not only cheered on a generation of Silicon Valley dolls to dress their finest for the pump’n’dump cycle, they fucking owned the barn where the show was held.
So it’s hard to summon a pittance of pity for the mascara tears they’re now sporting. They knew this day was coming. When sugar daddy AOL, father of the Master Plan, pulled out the big checkbook to buy the prettiest doll of tech rags, did they really think it was true love?
Sure, they were all excited at the trophy wedding. TechCrunch was “delighted about becoming part of the AOL family,” and AOL’s PR department was thrilled that “[TechCrunch’s] reputation for top-class journalism precisely matches AOL’s commitment to delivering the expert content critical to this audience”.
But now it’s been 11 months since the check cleared, AOL daddy is all out of sugar, and the TechCrunch trophy is full of dust. Cue a drama worthy of the Bachelorette.
David wrote this on Sep 06 2011 There are 20 comments.
WT 06 Sep 11
I think you meant « crocodile tears ».
Scott 06 Sep 11
I’m pretty sure he meant “mascara tears.” It fits with the whole ‘sugar daddy’, ‘trophy wedding’, ‘Bachelorette’ metaphor
Joe 06 Sep 11
WT: You get all dolled up, sliding on your slinkiest dress and covering blemishes with your hottest makeup. When your date then makes you cry – there’s mascara in those tears.
Troll 06 Sep 11
Whoops!
Pedro 06 Sep 11
Butthurt post about a butthurt drama.
Arik Jones 06 Sep 11
Pedro: Followed beautifully by your ‘butthurt’ comment.
On a more relevant note, I’m happy that TechCrunch’s end is here. They provide not one ounce of value to the tech startup community. Frankly, I don’t think they ever have.
tobi 06 Sep 11
Arrington does not seem like someone deeply caring about values other than money. I bet he is quite happy with the deal even now.
Peter Cooper 07 Sep 11
@tobi: That’s a common opinion but it’s not fair if you know the man. Michael cares a lot more for the craft and the cut and thrust of publishing than is generally recognized. If he has any flaw, it’s a craving for the tricky-to-reach nirvana where notoriety and respectability converge. He spoke about a similar dilemma a few years ago which I wrote about earlier this year in context of the acquisition and playing second fiddle to Huffington.
Luke Holder 07 Sep 11
I think this was a big long con.
Arrington sells to AOL for $$$. Gets them to publicly announce they will give them journalistic freedom. Starts a venture fund and knows he can bolster the chosen startups he wants with techcruch http://read.bi/qCs2IQ (fund even has a same branding) . Everyone cries bloody murder and it upsets AOL . AOL cant handle it and sells techcrunch back to Arrington for a pittance. Arrington has the fund, his blog, and a pile of cash.
Gerard Kelly 07 Sep 11
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy…
Techcrunch is bad for your health.
Thomas 07 Sep 11
Witty comment on an appalling story. What is TechCrunch anyway, except a grossly self-promotion machine, echoing the tantrums and perpetual whining of Arrington. Gross.
agricolo 07 Sep 11
I agree with Gerard Kelly! Reading Techcrunch gives you a distorted image of the “real work”...
Gerard Kelly 07 Sep 11
@Thomas: totally agree.
Simply put, TechCrunch just isn’t as important as it thinks itself to be.
Bryan Sebastian 07 Sep 11
Tech Crunch = Total waste of time and disk space on some server. Seriously, who the fuck cares about anything on there?
Brad 07 Sep 11
Not to pile on, but isn’t Tech Crunch basically E! for techies?
papaman 07 Sep 11
oh man! You couldn’t put in better. This is exactly what TC is. Is what E! is for TV. Trash. TrashCrunch…
Zingus 07 Sep 11
Mh… AOL spoiling and trashing something it buys, who would ever have thought of that?
Paul Montwill 09 Sep 11
TechCrunch is all about hype, big numbers, buyouts, acquisitions etc. They are far away from top class business blogs like Inc.com that brings really value for readers. In the last years it was about “OMG we were featured of TC!”.
It doesn’t change the fact that there is high demand for such places…
Roshan 09 Sep 11
lol. & all this time I was feeling pity towards TechCrunch.
Krish 13 Sep 11
The good and the bad.
Good: TechCrunch started off as an epicenter for StartUp related news. It’s primary goal was to shed light on Silicon Valley – including founders, angels, VC’s, buyouts, etc.
Bad: Selling out to AOL without a “solid prenup”.
Plus, lets keep in mind that TechCruch is a news site – a journalism blog. The only possible way they can generate revenue is through Ads or Sponsors.
Anybody who is crazy enough to start a free news blog and keep it active must be very passionate towards the subject matter. For this, I give TechCrunch & Michael props.
When AOL came along wanting to shell out $$$$ @ Michael, it was a good idea to sell it off. If Michael really wanted more control over TechCrunch’s brand & image, a better idea would’ve been to sign a detailed prenup. (i don’t think Michael really cared about this to begin with)
It doesn’t really matter now.
Michael is rich.
AOL is richer.
Who cares? We all knew it was going to end in a divorce or separation anyway.
This discussion is closed.