Report: Digg walked away from $100 million offer from Al Gore

Plenty of would-be buyers have been named for social news site Digg, but one we haven't heard much about: Current Media, the cable and Web news channel that was launched by former vice president Al Gore.

It's one of the juicy tidbits detailed in BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy's book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, which hits bookstores on Thursday. In an excerpt posted to TechCrunch, Lacy writes about how executives Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose turned down a $100 million offer from Current in 2006 because they had, as TechCrunch paraphrased, "issues with control going forward."

The thinking is consistent with what founder Rose told CNET News.com in February when asked about selling his company. "I've had several friends that have been acquired by the Yahoos and Googles of the world, and while there is some upside in certain things, for the most part, it slows things down," Rose said at the time. "You can't get a product out the door fast enough."

Current, which filed for an initial public offering in January, now operates Current News, where users can vote on the news Digg-style and then see the top stories incorporated into an hourly news show on the cable network. Digg, meanwhile, remains the subject of acquisition rumors on the part of just about every major tech and media company around.

[Truth Speaker]

Digg has gone downhill so fast it would be surprising if anyone paid to acquire them. The articles are boring and unreadable and the interesting contributors have left.

Good luck polishing that one!

[Truth Speaker]

It would be surprising if anyone paid to acquire them now that the interesting contributors have left. Good luck polishing that one.

[Orion Blastar]

Digg has become ultra-liberal and votes down any story that doesn't give the ultra-liberal view on things. Reddit is not that much different. Even Al Gore is seen as right-wing to Digg.

[johnalphonse-22167694933540745]

Gee, I question the legitimacy of this info from Digg because a hundred million could give a startup quite a bit of "control" on another startup project, and lack of foresight on the buyer's part could have made for a good deal for the Diggers... A hundred million?

[johnalphonse-22167694933540745]

Gee, I question the legitimacy of this info because a hundred million could give a startup quite a bit of "control" on another startup project, and lack of foresight on the buyer's part could have made for a good deal for the Diggers... A hundred million?