

Ben Huh offers to buy Reddit - ssclafani
http://thedailywh.at/post/1021998482/stop-what-youre-doing-and-read-the-hell-out-of

======
jacquesm
Is this guy actually in a position to follow through or is he just cleverly
using the controversy to further his own goal without an actual intent to
commit? I take it reddit would not be sold for 'pocket change'.

~~~
davepeck
I suspect Ben Huh is _definitely_ in a position to follow through.

~~~
jacquesm
Good, so how come he didn't follow protocol on this? After all, after such a
stunt CN is likely going to give him the cold shoulder just for that. I can't
imagine they're happy about this if he's for real.

The redditors have been at odds with CN pretty much since day 5 of the take
over or so, and every time I hear about them it's something like this.

If they were going to dump reddit you'd think they would have done so long
ago.

~~~
bmcleod
I'm guessing that he thinks if it continues like this CN is going to start
actively looking to divest themselves of Reddit.

By posting like this he's making it even worse for them in terms of publicity
so there is a good chance they'll want to do so more.

The two outcomes in this situation seem to be:

A) The nature of the offer and the awkward position it puts CN in causes them
to take a lower offer sooner than they might otherwise.

B) Offer never amounts to anything beyond a bit of free publicity for a few of
Ben Huh's sites.

So in either case Ben Huh comes out ahead and didn't have to invest masses of
time in "serious" dealing that might have lead to him getting Reddit but for a
higher price.

~~~
jacquesm
That's a good explanation.

I figure if Conde Nast is going to sell reddit they'll want a premium compared
to what they paid for it, given the growth of reddit that could be a
substantial premium.

I believe they paid something like 12.5 million (But I've also seen much
higher figures, also unsubstantiated).

So my guess is that if they do want to divest they'll sound out the higher
segment of the market first to see if there are any takers.

------
troymc
Please don't use CN as shorthand in these comments as it's short for both
Conde Nast and Cheezburger Network.

\- on behalf of the Society for the Elimination of Ambiguity.

~~~
pavs
CN > CN

------
bl4k
am I the only redditor that doesn't want this guy to buy the site?

CN may be bad, but this guy isn't exactly the epitome of professionalism

(edit: also not sure if the reddit guys will be up for both cheeseburger
owners and cheeseburger wages: [http://gawker.com/5488509/inside-the-
low+paying-cheezburger-...](http://gawker.com/5488509/inside-the-low+paying-
cheezburger-empire))

~~~
MartinCron
Disclaimer: I worked at Cheezburger, I know and love Ben. He doesn't appear to
the epitome of professionalism, but that's part of his shtick as "the zany
lolcat guy". He's actually a remarkable guy in a lot of ways. As arrogant as
this may sound, he's one of the few people I've ever known who could take my
ideas and reliably make them _better_. He's said some stupid things on his
blog, but that's just a part of life.

The gawker article was pure tabloid junk, quoting anonymous sources who were
disgruntled ex-employees. Compensation was always at market rates, entry-level
positions had entry-level pay, while professional positions had professional
pay.

He's not perfect, he's young and is still making mistakes (I still think
firing me was a big mistake, for example, but I can't really talk about that)
but don't discount his professionalism.

~~~
kemayo
It is reasonably impressive to find someone who can leave the people he
_fires_ talking about how great he is.

~~~
ohashi
Yeah, that bit made me double take the content of what he was writing. Before
it just seemed like a fanboy, now, it seems quite genuine. Of course, that
could be the best troll ever too :)

------
rumpelstiltskin
_Reddit would benefit from more resources and less corporate interference. We
can offer all of the above._

How does working in the sweatshop that is the Cheezburger Network = less
coporate interference?

Edit for clarification:
<http://www.google.com/search?q=cheezburger+network+sweatshop>

~~~
didip
I'm curious, why Cheezburger Network is a sweatshop? Any experience first
hand? or employees there blog about how sucky the company is?

~~~
MartinCron
I worked at Cheezburger until a few months ago. Here's the deal with the
sweatshop charges. It comes down to three items.

1\. Disgruntled ex-employees are disgrunted. 2\. Entry-level positions are
entry-level. 3\. Sleazy tabloids are sleazy.

While I worked there (as an experienced developer, not a fresh-out-of-college
content moderator) I was a "real" employee (not contract) and I made a very
decent wage, especially considering it's at least nominally a tech startup. (I
wouldn't describe it as a tech startup but that's a different story).

~~~
mahmud
You really _did_ work at CN, given that accent/logic.

restating the hypothesis == proof. I love it.

~~~
MartinCron
Thanks for noticing.

------
whatusername
I wonder if Ben Huh is nodex?
[http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/cnth8/making_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/cnth8/making_ends_meet_tldr_remember_that_joke_about/c0twf3m)

~~~
nlogn
nodex posted this in that thread: "I would hate to see it get done the wrong
way though and become hyper-commercialized and end up being an ad laden site
with only pictures of cats..."

Eerily prophetic I fear, if this Ben Huh guy gets his hands on reddit.

~~~
Android
Yeah, he's the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen to the site.

------
staunch
He's probably got it in his mind that CN would be willing to dump it for $3
million or some other low ball number.

Reddit was purchased for something like $15 million. I doubt they'd sell it
for less than $30 million (if at all). This guy is just tilting at windmills.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
I'm not sure, CN seems fundamentally unable to figure out how to make Reddit
into a profitable venture. It wouldn't be the first startup purchased by a
large corporate entity to be sold off for less than the initial purchase
price.

~~~
jacquesm
But reddit has grown enormously in that time. So the potential has grown as
well, the fact that CN can't make it work is not going to stop some other
party from trying very hard.

What's interesting is that they can't monetize it at this traffic level, even
with _only_ four employees.

------
grahamb
He also offered to buy my reasonably successful blog for $200. True story.

~~~
jacquesm
Reminds me of the weekly offers I get for ww.com: "I see that you are not
using your domain and we were wondering if you would sell it. We can offer you
[insert 5 random figures here] and we would like to use escrow.com please
reply asap."

[delete].

~~~
ido
For their benefit i must admit i would have thought ww.com is some parked
domain-squatter from a cursory glance if I didn't know better :)

The design looks a bit similar to a lot of these types of parked domains.

~~~
jacquesm
How so? That homepage has a 1% bouncerate...

~~~
ido
White background, very minimal, just a bunch of text and some links- none of
that is bad of course, it's just that my brain has been condition to interpret
these cues as a parked domain that I reached because of a typo.

Quick examples:

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_61OWU2tC3nY/SbOgGfx01eI/AAAAAAAAAj...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_61OWU2tC3nY/SbOgGfx01eI/AAAAAAAAAjU/4vCu3vX0HH0/s320/Adsense-
parked-domains.png)

[http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-parked-domain-
screenshot...](http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-parked-domain-
screenshot.png)

[http://www.donmak.com/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2008/07/g...](http://www.donmak.com/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2008/07/godaddy-parked-page.jpg)

<http://www.apogee-web-consulting.com/images/rumcakes-ads.jpg>

<http://gopgle.com/>

~~~
jacquesm
That's food for thought. Thanks, I never looked at it through your eyes so
it's hard to figure out what someone else sees as a 'first impression'.

I'm actually working with someone on improving the site, I'll definitely pass
this on.

------
kunjaan
All web entrepreneurs hurry up before the controversy dies. You too can profit
from this mess up.

~~~
jacquesm
Pretty cheap, really. If you're serious about an acquisition you first
approach the target and if you both agree to go public you go public. Anything
else is just a publicity stunt, or at a minimum smells strongly like one.

------
MisterWebz
Well, this is getting very interesting.

