Six Apart challenges Google

Duncan Martell

SAN FRANCISCO: Six Apart said it had acquired Danga Interactive Inc., bringing together two pioneers of online journals known as blogs and creating a stronger rival to Google Inc.'s Blogger.com service.

Terms of the stock and cash transaction were not disclosed, said closely held San Francisco-based Six Apart, which developed the popular Movable Type online publishing software and the TypePad blogging service.

Danga, is based in Portland, Oregon, and is privately held. It operates the blogging service LiveJournal, popular with teens and young adults.

With the acquisition, the number of major players in the blogging space has largely consolidated to Six Apart and search engine Google, which acquired Blogger.com in May 2003 with its acquisition of Pyra Labs.

Blogs, which are Web logs that often mix news, gossip and opinion, have mushroomed in popularity in the last two years from just online journals of teenagers, 20-somethings and other adults to their adoption by major corporations as marketing and communications tools.

The acquisition, which gives Six Apart a combined 6.5 million Web logs for individuals, corporations and institutions, also diversifies Six Apart's abilities.

Six Apart, formed in 2002 by husband and wife Ben and Mena Trott, offers more technologically advanced and sophisticated software for blogging. The blogging software from Danga, which was started by Brad Fitzpatrick in 1999, is simpler and based on an open-source platform.

"We are now the only company to offer the full range of Web logging tools to the market," said Barak Berkowitz, chief executive of Six Apart.

Six Apart offers a free service for family and friends to interact, with LiveJournal; a hosted service for avid bloggers who need more flexibility and power with TypePad; and a computer server-based solution for power users and corporations through Movable Type.

"It's a natural fit for LiveJournal to become part of Six Apart," Fitzpatrick said.

As part of Six Apart, LiveJournal will continue to operate as a separate division, the company said.

Although venture capitalists have not flocked in droves to fund blogging start-ups because it's not yet clear how they will generate sizable profits, Six Apart received $10 million in funding in October from August Capital.

Blogs have also attracted the attention of Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software company. Last month, Microsoft rolled out MSN Spaces, a set of free Web-based services that lets users of its MSN service to publish and track one another's online journals.