In a response to Pro Blog News questions, B5 Media CEO Jeremy Wright Sunday refused to publicly comment on last week’s report the Canadian blog network had considered merging with troubled blog search engine Technorati. Wright said Friday’s Tech Crunch post “Secret Merger Talks Between Technorati and b5Media Blow Up” is “90 percent false.”
“We can’t and don’t comment on rumours, especially ones that are 90 percent false and written by competitors without calling to fact-check,” wrote Wright in an e-mail.
Although B5 isn’t talking publicly about the episode, Wright said they’ve already informed B5 employees.
“The storm’s died down, and the people who care (our bloggers) have gotten an answer internally,” he told Pro Blogging News.
Friday, Tech Writer writer Erick Schonfeid, citing a source “familiar with the negotiations”, said talks “blew up” earlier last week when a merger was just “days away” from being announced. The site said CEO personality conflicts and Technorati’s lack of forthcoming doomed the tie-up.
An agreement would have given Technorati a hand recreating itself as a blog ad network. At one point, the company was shopping the idea, complete with pitch slides highlighting the benefits of such a merger. For B5, a merger would mean a greater valuation to investors.
Wright, although dismissing 90 percent of the report as bunk, leaves open the door that 10 percent of the tale was true. Which 10 percent was accurate? The B5 CEO isn’t talking.
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