October 31, 2006

Breaking News: Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Reddit

Michael Arrington

146 comments »

We just received confirmation that Condé Nast, owner of Wired and other magazines/websites, acquired Boston-based Reddit earlier this morning, and will make the announcement later today. The price is not being disclosed.

All four reddit employees will relocate from Boston to Wired’s San Francisco office and become part of Wired Digital. Reddit, founded and funded in 2005, is a YCombinator company (see our interview with YCombinator founder Paul Graham here). The two original founders are Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, and they were later joined by Christopher Slowe and Aaron Swartz.

Reddit is a social news site that has always played second fiddle to Digg, although Reddit does have an active and loyal userbase. Users praise Reddit for having a very quick load time and no advertising. Like Digg, news stories on Reddit are submitted by users, and other users vote up or down on the story. When it gets enought “up” votes, the story appears on the home page.

Wired will leave Reddit as a standalone site, and also integrate it into Condé Nast web properties.

See our earlier coverage on recent Digg acquisition rumors.

Update:
Marshall and I just recorded a podcast with Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, and it will be up on TalkCrunch shortly. We couldn’t get them to tell us the acquisition price, but they did tell us that the company has raised just $100k (all in summer 2005) and currently has an average of 70,000 daily unique visitors and 700,000 or so page views.

  • Sphere It

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. kenlet
  2. Wired Publisher Acquires Reddit | Marketing Pilgrim
  3. Condé Nast Buys Reddit » The Bivings Report
  4. xeit · Reddit Acquired
  5. Reddit acuqired by Conde Nast? - Todd Pinkerton
  6. Google Acquires Jotspot, Conde Nast Acquires Reddit - CyberNet News: Hardware, Downloads, Gadgets...Technology Done Right!
  7. www.techtagg.com - See Tech Taggers view on this story!
  8. Voodoo Ventures - Idea Fuel Blog » Conde Nast buys Reddit.com, but have you seen Lipstick.com?
  9. Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation and the Web » Blog Archive » Condé Nast Moves into Social News, Acquiring Reddit
  10. Conde Nast has Reddit « Yoick - Hightechwire
  11. www.yunar.com
  12. Reddit gets to Digg-ify Conde Nast » Mathew Ingram: mathewingram.com/work
  13. TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » 速報: Condé Nast/WiredがReddit買収へ
  14. IndianPad
  15. Lost Remote TV Blog
  16. Conde Nast-Reddit, Google-Jotspot, eSnips, Prosper, Google Video « Technically Speaking
  17. Social Bookmark Service Reddit Acquired by Condé Nast » Online Marketing Blog
  18. Deep Jive Interests » Hungry Hungry Hippos! Reddit Gobbled Up By Conde Nast
  19. Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » Who got bought today - post #1
  20. Emre Sokullu » Halloween or April 1? Zend, Reddit, JotSpot
  21. Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Reddit « John Chow dot Com
  22. HipMojo.com - IT, Video, Web, Technology, Gadgets » Reddit Acquired by CondeNet, Implications for Digg?
  23. Mapping The Web » Reddit… Set… Go!
  24. Matthew Demyen’s Blog » Reddit has been acquired!
  25. Social Round-up - Cristian Mezei
  26. Grazr Blog » Blog Archive » Congratulations Reddit
  27. VentureBeat » Wired acquires news ranking site, Reddit
  28. TalkCrunch » Blog Archive » Reddit Acquired: Interview With Founders
  29. Sandblog » Blog Archive » Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Breaking News: Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Reddit
  30. The Daily Loper - October 31, 2006 | Medialoper
  31. Dirty Carl » Blog Archive » Wired buys Reddit
  32. WolfWeave » Blog Archive » Exciting News
  33. Reddit Bought Acquisited « Griffin Post
  34. Plasma Diary - An aggregation of latest updates in Gizmo World! » Wired Buys Reddit
  35. Plasma Diary - An aggregation of latest updates in Gizmo World! » Charles River Ventures Goes For Angel Market
  36. Is ShoutWire Next? Reditt acquired by Wired’s Condé Nast at WaynePorter.Com The Post Human Experience
  37. Where do you get your (breaking) news from? « Feeds 2.0
  38. Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Charles River Ventures Goes For Angel Market
  39. Things That ... Make You Go Hmm
  40. Denken Über » CondeNast compra Reddit y lo “une” a Wired
  41. Charles River Ventures Goes For Angel Market « My Interests
  42. Matt Sparkes / Interview - Alexis Ohanion, Reddit Co-Founder
  43. THD/S3 « Ponte la peluka
  44. Hello world! « World Blog
  45. Reddit Acquired » Webomatica
  46. Kaizen Bits » Social Bookmarking Success: Two Sides of the Same Coin
  47. Greg Hartnett’s Linkblog
  48. Participate Media » Blog Archive » Capital Efficiency - or - Why Are You Raising So Much Money?
  49. Wired.com snaps up Reddit at Da Forde
  50. These go to eleven - In Boston, for now
  51. idplay » halloween HCI comic joke
  52. Media Connection (11/2006) at newBrainframes.org
  53. KnotLion - just the truth » Blog Archive » Video Interview: reddit
  54. iShopr Blog » Blog Archive » The way we work is changing
  55. Interview With Reddit Founders » JenIT
  56. Kyle Cordes » Blog Archive » You Have More Options Than You Think
  57. Shakeup Media » Complacency
  58. » Social Round-up - SEO Directory Blog
  59. mobcode » This is the battle to be fought
  60. Techcrunch » Blog Archive » No Acquisition For Digg - Raise Series B Round Instead
  61. No Acquisition For Digg - Raise Series B Round Instead at Swiss Podcast Directory and Blog
  62. No Acquisition For Digg - Raise Series B Round Instead
  63. Weebly Goes With YCombinator
  64. ::lemonup:: - News, Technology, sports, cars, movie, video, blog, travel, mp3, picture, computer, notebook » Y Combinator Taking Apps: Have Idea, Will Travel
  65. Condé Nast Launches Flip
  66. Demo Day: Y Combinator’s Spring Chicks
  67. Google Buys Online Slide Creator Zenter
  68. Just a random blog !
  69. moraaz.org - feed all tech! » Next Target for Subvert and Profit: StumbleUpon
  70. » Users Aren't Too Happy With Post-Acquisition Reddit || Pulse 2.0: Web 2.0 Reviews & Profiles || » Blog Archive
  71. The Daily Social » Blog Archive » IQONs: fashion gets social
  72. Own A Piece Of Reddit, Help Fight Brain Tumors
  73. Demo Day: Y Combinator’s Spring Chicks
  74. $300-million? I could Digg that - - mathewingram.com/work
  75. $300-million? I could Digg that - - mathewingram.com/media
  76. Fraxi - a “Ning” For Digg Clones
  77. Fraxi - a “Ning” For Digg Clones — domainshop24.at steht zum Verkauf

Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. SpezsMom

    Congrats…

  2. Alaska Miller

    Thus far Mr. Graham’s only hit. Would love to hear the sales price.

  3. Louis Gray

    I wouldn’t have anticipated Reddit only had 4 employees. That is impressive. It’s great to see the smallest of startups be successful. I hope the purchase price made everyone happy.

  4. Samer

    congrads to them, they have done a great job!

  5. Vic

    Me neither Louis. The site is never down, there arent any ads that i can see, if any. And the site runs smoother than well… a site with heavy traffic should run!

  6. Adam

    While they have played “second fiddle” to Digg in number of users, the content is much more varied, the commentary more intelligent, and they built up on a shoe string budget and stayed lean and mean. Congrats to Reddit - they are some of the good guys…

  7. RJ

    Reddit is the ‘better’ version…if Reddit can be considered a version…of Digg. Echoing Adam (#6), it is clean, fast, uncluttered and the content a tad more substantial!

    Hoping Conde’ Nast are true to their intentions and leave Reddit alone and leave it ’steady as she goes’!

  8. rieux

    Alaska: not Mr Graham’s first hit, actually; see loopt.com.

  9. Blake

    My best friend works for Conde Nast, so as soon as I read this, I pinged him to see if he knew anything about the acquisition. He hadn’t heard of Reddit, but immediately sent me to http://lipstick.com/, a Conde Nast site. I had never heard of Lipstick.com, but looks almost identical to Reddit.

    Obviously, Conde Nast is waaay more tech savvy than I had originally assumed. Although, knowing what my friend is doing at Conde (taking all their mags online), it appears that Conde is preparing a pre-emptive strike on the magazine (media) industry.

  10. Anshul

    Fantastic news for reddit. Just 4 employees was very surprising though. I hope that now we see more features on reddit.

  11. The Dude

    @9:

    Lipstick *is* reddit. Click on “help” and you’ll see “never reddit before? here’s how”

  12. Chris Lake

    One commentator on Reddit has “confirmed” that the sale went through at $65m. Big dose of salt needed. Still, if Digg is worth $150m who knows…?

  13. Drew Olanoff

    Great purchase, love reddit!

  14. Shuki Haiminis

    Congrats to the reddit team!!!!!

  15. MoneyBags

    How much?

    Cash / stock?

  16. Internet Blogger

    Why does people only admire companies when they do not carry advertisements? Are they that bad!??

    anyway, I always loved Reddit..four employees!! that was incredible…

  17. Jojoma

    Congratulations!

    Big fan of reddit. Keep doing what you do!

  18. MetroBellevue

    Yeah, Lipstick.com and Reddit.com look greatly alike, which makes a lot sense for the acquisition.

  19. Nader Soliman

    Excellent exit if the reported $65m is right. Also Paul should be proud of that. Now … Digg how it will go with you?

  20. Calvin Tang

    Congrats to the Reddit Team. I’ve always been a fan.

  21. Amit Chowdhry

    “(see our interview with YCombinator founder Paul Graham here)”
    Last article:
    http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....y-jotspot/
    “Founders Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer are also founders of early web portal Excite, now an IAC property.”

    Evidence suggests that if you have the name Graham somewhere in your name, you will be acquired.

  22. TL

    @Alaska Miller:

    It’s not Paul Graham’s only hit .. he sold Viaweb to Yahoo for a massive pile of cash.

  23. David

    Conde Nast’s ownership of Lipstick.com was reported back in June. See here.

  24. Aaron

    I love reddit. I think its better than Digg at filtering awesome content.

  25. Reddit Soldout

    No ads.. Still no ads … really no ads.. what about the advertising link at the bottom that goes out to FM. You can continue to believe taht there will be no ads with wired in the game.

  26. WormInBuffet

    I like the tech and the ease-of-use of reddit. the thing i don’t like is how it has become a battleground for politics. i think compaign organizations have highjacked that site and turned it into a democrats vs repukeblican propoganda war.

  27. Ryan Elisei

    BRAVO! BRAVO!!!

    @Worm: You can read certain topic sections by themselves.

  28. Paul Short

    This came as quite a surprise to me. What, is the lack of pre-acquisition buzz the new thing now?

  29. Abhishek Goyal

    I personally wasn’t a big fan of reddit.

  30. John Koetsier

    Trying to understand this”

    “Wired will leave Reddit as a standalone site, and also integrate it into Condé Nast web properties.”

    Huh?

  31. Aaron Swartz

    I think he meant integrate Reddit-like features into other web properties.

  32. lemon obrien

    @Reddit only had 4 employees.

    any company with more and no product is in serious trouble. Its not like it takes a lot of work to sit and watch computers.

  33. Sean

    Congrats to them, although I have grown to hate that site. The user base is way too elitist, and the only thing that makes the front page is politics, religion, and programming (python and lisp mainly).

    Blah to that :P

  34. Roshawn

    Kudos to the reddit team. And to think that it’s only a party of four.

    Honestly, I don’t use digg or reddit. But I just love it when people make their dreams come true. Just more motivation for other web designers/programmers out there to make their mark on the web. ;-)

  35. Sean

    Why is it when I do a emoticon of a sticking out your tongue( : followed by P ) it makes it into a smiley face? That completely changes the tone of my comment. Blah to techcrunch.

  36. BO

    very nice :) I love reddit

  37. dave at faceloop

    Im happy for reddit - I think it is far superior to digg…

  38. michael

    i started using http://www.plime.com its more of a reddit meets wiki

  39. michael j

    Just don’t go pop now…….. justin timberlake pop like youtube. People like reddit better FOR NOW.

  40. Alaska Miller

    Wow. You guys are idiots.

    Reddit has been Paul Graham’s YCombinator’s first hit. As in sold and gave ROI back to Graham. Loopt was launched back in September, it’s not even that popular. If 65 mil is true then YCombinator just got 15 mil in its coffers.

  41. N9

    Conde Nast is very interested in growing online ad revenue and using its sites to increase other Conde titles’ rate base. I expect to see Reddit’s content window shrink and display ads creep across the screen like kudzu. Plus, it might be a good ancillary site for Portfolio once it officially launches. An interesting buy for ol’ Newhouse, in any event.

  42. jeff

    go reddit go, finally a total fair user driven commnity is becoming a big hit, I justhope wired keep reddit a fair user driven community and lets the user decide what stroies get on the homepage

  43. Samer

    i am happy for these guys.

  44. Vik

    HAHAHA, no ads. How the hell did they or will they make any $$??

  45. Darren

    I think this is just to get hold of the engine underneath and create more reddits for different niches. Each niche might just match one of thier mag IPS

  46. Yakov

    Reddit is very simple to use - that’s why it’s so popular. It should just get bigger. No wonder it’s been taken over before then.

  47. infogami user

    why is infogami so slow ??????????????????

  48. gjones

    Interestingly, I got turned on to reddit by reading an article by Paul Graham.
    Its exactly as he promised and a significant staple of my daily “whatsup?”.
    As for accusations of elitism, etc – I’m flattered. reddit has apparently evolved to cater to folks just like me. I cant be bothered with the meaningless or sordid that sites like digg provide. reddit does what it does best, and I hope it doesn’t change a bit,

  49. Indigo-2

    Great scoop - this wave of acquisitions in recent months is worth watching.

  50. kevin

    We were lucky enough to interview Reddit crew back in August for our first feature interview over at Juxtaviews.com - they really are a great bunch of people and we wish them the best. They answered A LOT of question for us, which we greatly appreciate.

    Here’s the interview if you’re interested:

    http://www.juxtaviews.com/2006.....d-so-easy/

  51. Nik Cubrilovic

    Congrats Alexis, Steve and the rest of the team! Reddit are a smart group of hackers who stayed small, focused and provided something that a lot of people love and use. An excellent example of Paul Graham’s principals in practice and how well they can work (except for LISP :)).

    This is now the third exit for Y! combinator (Kiko, Loopt, Reddit) so they are doing well.

  52. Nik Cubrilovic

    Lipstick is actually built on Reddit - that was announced months ago. The Reddit business model is to license the platform. The advertising link could be to advertise on other reddit-powered sites and not the main site

  53. The Onion

    I agree with most comments above - Reddit is a better service than Digg for several reasons:

    - It is available in languages other than English, allowing non-native English speakers to discuss news more relevant to them.
    - It is super clean and uncluttered.
    - It doesn’t have the hype of Digg, but simply delivers.
    - You will find more varied news stories there.

    Well done!

  54. michael addicott

    congratulations to the founders. we have admired the site for a while. clearly they are doing it the right way… thanks for the intuitive design and clean style. you all have a bright future i’m sure, in this and whatever you do next

  55. Marc Nathan

    Whatever the final acquistion number is (and the mix of cash and stock), this is a huge win for Paul Graham and the ycombinator team. I’m glad to see them on a roll and I hope that this success fuels more teams to make more cool, interesting and useful web apps. It might be too much to hope for, but maybe we’ll see ycombinator companies in cities like Houston one day: http://bulldogfinancial.com/bullblog/?p=27

  56. David Mackey

    Wonder what inspired Wired to take on this company?

  57. anke ohanian

    WOW”ON CLOUD NINE!” happy birthday dad!could not have been a better
    day!HIGH SUGAR RUSH!!!!!!:)(:

  58. drawkbox

    Reddit and Digg are heavy traffic drivers. Teh viral marketing of the present and future needs heavy customer bases to perviate from. Buying these for a magazine company is smart becasue they will put up articles with ads, then seed it in their viral networks (lipstick - gossip) (reddit - digerati/tech) others, then see their ads make alot of money. Building networks for your products or making them successful is the product worth buying for tech right now.

  59. drawkbox

    The ads are hidden within the content…

  60. ashutosh

    looks like the market is consolidating it self with all the major players getting their acts together and are on buying mode. this augments well for the IT industry as all the websites will now have finance and the corporate support

  61. SiliconValleyGuy

    Reddit has consistently more interesting, more varied, and more thought-provoking content than Digg.

    Keep up the good work.

  62. Ryan Morin

    Interesting thoughts, everyone. I agree that reddit is far superior to digg in terms of content and ease of use. But I’m curious about the selling price. I wouldn’t pay 65 million to acquire a community of hackers and geeks. In reddit’s case, 10 million seems to be a reasonable price. But since we’re in the midst of other bloated Web 2.0 valuations (Facebook, YouTube, et al.), I’m going to rely on averages and guess that the purchase price was 37.5 million. A voodoo estimate.

  63. Buffy

    This is tragic. As someone who works in advertising, I work with Conde Nast frequently. Admittedly, they have the highest quality media properties (Wired, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, etc). But they’re still so very corporate and reddit was so very not. I fear that CN will change my beloved site to be yet another vehicle for advertisers. And it’s not the ads I’m concerned about. It’s the propect of CN controlling the content rather than letting it remain organic.

  64. NY

    My bet is that the deal is within around $1-2m, which would be a pretty reasonable hiring bonus for its truly excellent development team. Hopefully they will get them to work on something more meaningful than a million “Evil America” story links - content in Reddit has been rapidly sliding way down the Indymedia slope for the last 6 months or so.

  65. chang kyu - rss search alerts

    I hear that a couple big players may be looking at http://znitch.com too

  66. smdali

    Reddit future has changed

  67. Tony Lynne

    CavengerNews.com is better anyway

  68. Targeted Web Traffic

    I loved reddit… I hope wired doesnt destroy it

  69. kolli

    hello