Digg Sold to Betaworks: WSJ Reports Buying Price of Just $500,000

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Social news site Digg has been acquired by Betaworks. In a company blog post, Digg’s Matt Williams said, in part:

We couldn’t be happier to announce that the next generation of Digg will live on with the team from Betaworks. Betaworks is combining Digg with News.me, a Betaworks company with an iPad app, iPhone app and daily email that delivers the best stories shared by your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Digg will join a portfolio of products developed by Betaworks designed to improve the way people find and talk about the news. Betaworks founder John Borthwick will be the CEO of the new Digg.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Digg cost Betaworks just $500,000 according to three unnamed sources, adding that such a price is “a pittance for a company that raised $45 million from prominent investors including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Marc Andreessen.”

Digg founder Kevin Rose said of Betaworks founder John Borthwick, “I’ve always been a fan of John’s product vision and the companies he builds, funds, and advises. John understands the real-time nature of the web and how to capture and surface trends as they occur. Given his experience with bit.ly, news.me, and Chartbeat I can’t wait to see what he does with Digg.”

“Coming soon, Betaworks will unveil a new cloud-based version of Digg to complement the current News.me iPhone and iPad apps. Stay tuned,” wrote Williams.