SplashBlog Acquired by Six Apart

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.sixapart.com/about/press/2006/03/six_apart_acqui.html' target='_blank'>http://www.sixapart.com/about/press/2006/03/six_apart_acqui.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Six Apart, the leader in blogging software and services for individuals and businesses, today announced that it has acquired SplashBlog for an undisclosed amount. SplashBlog is a mobile photo blogging application and service that allows users to instantly publish photos from a camera phone to a blog. According to Six Apart, the acquisition further demonstrates the company’s commitment to bring the latest developments in mobile technologies to the users of the company’s Movable Type, TypePad and LiveJournal blogging software and services. Six Apart users can already send posts to their blogs via cell phones, and the addition of SplashBlog’s team and technologies allows the company to leverage the rapidly developing advancements in mobile technologies."</i><br /><br />If you're a SplashBlog user, you might want to know about it's acquisition. With any luck, Six Apart won't be making any changes - like price, and we can keep using SplashBlog without any hiccups. Six Apart are the makers of TypePad and Movable Type. Perhaps we'll see some integration with those products from the SplashBlog Windows Mobile client. That would be interesting. :)

[edgar]

I've met Mena and Ben - the founders of Six Apart. They have a great crew over there on 4th St in SoMa (San Francisco).

When they bought Ublog (French Blogging Company) then LiveJournal (Danga Interactive) they really kept the spirit of the product, and also kept all the key staff. Loic and Brad, former owners of UBlog and LiveJournal respectively remain with Six Apart as their EVP for EMEA Distribution and Chief Architect. They're a real cohesive team over there and I think this will be another great feather in their cap.

This was a key product line they needed to take Movable Type, Typepad and LiveJournal to the next step, and to what their customers need/want.

They live and breath Blogging over there - I think they are a leader in Blogging technology and sure seem to be well accepted by the Investors. I think they've hit at least two rounds both in the $10M range - all with the big boys. Heck with out them we wouldn't have "Trackback".

-Edgar_

[encece]

Well, I guess they wont be adding WordPress support....and probably remove Blogger Support, unless they plan on buying those too.

[edgar]

I wouldn't necessarily think that.

Ben and Mena are very hard core Open Source advocates. Their products are all Open Source. With that in mind anything they currently support I expect they will continue to support. Or, if you are a programmer, you can get the source and modify to your heart's content.

[edgar]

FYI - They just got third round. Looks liek they are going places.

San Francisco-Based Six Apart Raises $12 Million in Third Round

San Francisco -- Just days after announcing its acquisition of mobile photo
blogging company SplashBlog, San Francisco-based Six Apart, a provider of
blogging software and services, said that it has raised $12 million in its third
round of funding. The round was led by Palo Alto-based Focus Ventures, and
also included participation from Intel Capital and previous investor August
Capital. Six Apart is the maker of the Movable Type publishing platform, the
TypePad hosted blogging service and LiveJournal, an online community
organized around personal journals. The company said that more than 15
million people currently use its software and services, and over 30 million visit
its hosted sites each month.
http://www.sixapart.com/about/press/2006/03/six_apart_close.html