
Slashdot and SourceForge sold to Dice Holdings - thenextcorner
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dice-holdings-buys-geeknet-websites-125531940.html
======
noonespecial
I remember that wonderful day in 2007 when I noticed that there was a little
news aggregator bodged onto the back end of Paul Graham's essay blog and I
thought to myself "wow, this is like /. only it doesn't suck so much".

~~~
sabat
LOL, I had roughly the same experience. I'd already moved onto Digg (before it
was went downhill) and then to Reddit. But if I'm looking for more serious (if
sometimes negative) technology conversation, this right here is the epicenter.

~~~
ThomPete
This was exactly my experience.

/. then Digg and then Reddit.

I got tired of reddit being too political and too liberal (although I am a
liberal myself) so I was hoping/looking for something else.

Then in a StackOverflow podcast Jeff and Joe was talking about a new place
where all the cool kids hung out. They didn't want to say the name in fear of
it being overrun and ruined.

With a little research I found HN and haven't left since.

~~~
frewsxcv
"I got tired of reddit being too political and too liberal (although I am a
liberal myself) so I was hoping/looking for something else."

Unsubscribe from /r/politics

~~~
ThomPete
Well back then I was just reading the main feed.

~~~
VonGuard
This is the same path I took too. It must be a really obvious cycle we're all
participating in. When a community gets to some set size, the number of cock-
gobbling assholes who post mean things that contribute nothing becomes larger
than the smart and thoughtful people.

I swear, this almost always occurs right around the same time that these news
sites start complaining about not making enough money...

~~~
felipemnoa
The question is, is there some other group that has already superseded HN? I
haven't heard of any thus far. HN is still pretty good though so I have not
bothered to look.

~~~
ThomPete
my thoughts exactly. The only group I could think of is LessWrong but that's a
different main topic and can hardly be called superseding HN.

~~~
VonGuard
Lobste.rs

The thinking there is: Only links about development of software, no
entrepreneurial stuff.

~~~
VMG
seems as if there also isn't any comments stuff

~~~
hnriot
it's the old community chicken & egg problem, people go for the comments, but
unless there are enough 'seed' users the comments aren't there to attract the
others. Then along come the trolls and disruptors and before you know it, the
community forks and the whole process starts over.

~~~
jamesbritt
Lobste.rs has an interesting way of handling the influx of trolls and such by
making the site invite-only. If someone ends up being banned, so does whomever
invited them.

~~~
Evbn
Trolls are a Madserati problem for lobsters.

------
mhartl
In late 2008, I attended an "open-source CEO" dinner, at which I was
coincidentally seated between the CEOs of SourceForge and CollabNet (principal
developer and supporter of the Subversion VCS). I asked the CollabNet CEO what
he thought about Git, and he was dismissive, indicating that Subversion had
already won as the definitive open-source VCS. I then asked the SourceForge
CEO if he knew about GitHub; he was vaguely familiar with them, but appeared
utterly unconcerned that they might be a threat. I thought to myself, _All the
battles have been fought and lost, and these guys don't even know there's a
war._

------
Spoom
I've been posting on Slashdot since the early 2000s and have stayed on the
site primarily for its community; the higher-modded comments tend to come from
some pretty intelligent people. Unfortunately it seems like the current staff
don't really understand why the community that is there remains and have been
trying out a shotgun blast of different strategies recently: Slashdot TV,
SlashBI, SlashCloud, SlashDataCenter... I just want to discuss IT with
intelligent people. If they only got that the community is their power, they
might be able to make the site more relevant again. It seems like when Rob
Malda knew something was going on behind the scenes when he quit last year.
(For more, read his AMA: [http://www.topiama.com/r/137/iam-rob-cmdrtaco-malda-
founder-...](http://www.topiama.com/r/137/iam-rob-cmdrtaco-malda-founder-of-
slashdot-ama) )

At least there's HN if this latest sale makes /. go south completely.

~~~
jlgreco
With slashdot being sold for that little, I am still holding out hopes for Rob
somehow getting his hands on the site again, gutting it, and bringing it back
to its old (albeit not really profitable) glory.

~~~
cmdrtaco
That would have had to been one hell of a kickstarter ;)

~~~
dugmartin
No reason it can't be one now. Make membership in the site exclusive with a
donation, a minimum of $10 gets you first years membership and donations above
$10 are used to assign visible user ids by sorting from highest to lowest
donator.

------
zheng
I have very little perspective here, but this seems like a low price for /.
and SourceForge ($20M). The article states that last year alone the two sites
brought in that much revenue, but I'd assume they weren't bought if the
purchaser didn't think there was growth potential.

~~~
debacle
$20M in revenue, but how much in profit? Slashdot and sourceforge can't be
cheap to host.

~~~
viseztrance
Perhaps, but how much revenue did Instagram have?

~~~
rmc
The had millions of users using it for photos when Facebook, who had lots of
money, was worried.

------
ksherlock
They must be trying to set a record for how many corporate overlords they can
have. Andover.Net, VA Research, VA Linux, VA Software, SourceForge, Inc,
Geek.Net, Dice, ...

~~~
ben1040
To be fair those were a lot of names for what pretty much was the same
company, as VA Research went on a decade-long journey from being a Wall Street
IPO hit selling Linux workstations to selling T-shirts to people who use Linux
workstations.

------
simias
Does anybody here still use SourceForge to host their projects? Back in its
days it was the place for open source software, but these days I shudder when
software I want to use is hosted there. I think it failed to evolve and become
what is now github. Or maybe they target an other market?

~~~
romaniv
SF is not "social", quite slow and is more difficult to use for developers.
However, I feel that it is more end-user friendly. Maybe not inherently, but
because of the differences in culture. There are tons of software there that I
can just download and install without any tinkering. I don't recall a single
application that I've ever _installed_ from GitHub.

~~~
jlgreco
I think for most software on Github, the "end users" are themselves
developers. Libraries, vimscripts, languages, programmer oriented utilities,
etc.

I almost never got that sort of software from SourceForge. Most things that I
have gotten from SourceForge are more "user application"-y. I can't think of
any examples off the top of my head since it's been so long.. maybe things
like Wesnoth.

Basically what I think I am saying is it depends on who the end user is.

------
vectorbunny
Ouch. I'd venture this is a fair indication of the directionality of the value
of these aging 'name brands'. It seems not unlike a former arena-filling
headliner reduced to doing van tours of Holiday Inn lounges.

------
zeruch
I was on the SF.net "Ignition" team (and am still close friends with 2 of the
original 4 project team) and what Sourceforge aspired to be versus what
inevitably was done to it...to what it has been sold to...God, what a
depressing fin de sicle.

~~~
joeyh
I still wear my "cold storage" T-shirt sometimes.

~~~
zeruch
As do I. I think there were only a few dozen made, so they are actually a
"rare" item.

------
Syssiphus
Bye bye /. .. you will be missed.

~~~
weego
It's been awful ever since the narrative on there was almost entirely changed
to "freedom and rights from the point of view of socially awkward software
engineers". You cannot curate a community based on negativity, bile and
cynicism and expect it flourish.

~~~
ebiester
But enough about 1999.

Honestly, wasn't that always what /. was about?

------
madrona
This is surprising. I just spilled hot grits onto my lap. This (and Netcraft)
confirms the rumors that Slashdot is dying.

------
RenierZA
Unique monthly users:

    
    
      * Slashdot: 3.7 million
      * SourceForge: 40 million
      * Freecode: 0.5 million

~~~
thenomad
Hmm. Let's assume 2 page views per visit for simplicity.

44.2M visitors /mo = 88.4M page views /mo

If they're bringing in $20m revenue per year, that means $1.66m per month, or
$19 CPM, more or less.

Either they've got a lot of page views per user or they're monetising at
pretty high rates. Do /. or Sourceforge have non-ad monetisation methods, or
are they just getting very good ad deals?

~~~
TylerE
Or 2 pages per visit is an absurdly low number.

~~~
vidarh
Back when I used to visit Slashdot, it'd be more like a pageview every 5
minutes. The core audience used to be extremely dedicated. I wouldn't be
surprised if their pages per visit number is still abnormally high.

~~~
gknoy
Yes, but I think we all use adblock, so I'm not really sure where their views
and clicks would come from.

------
rwmj
Does this include Ohloh as well? That's a pretty nice code analysis site,
which was acquired by SF back in 2009:

<http://meta.ohloh.net/2009/05/sourceforge_acquires_ohloh/>

~~~
brondsem
Black Duck Software acquired Ohloh from Geeknet.
<http://www.blackducksoftware.com/news/releases/2010-10-05>

------
ed_blackburn
Would have been interesting to see github acquire SorceForge, for nothing more
than the projects. I guess a migration wouldn't be worth it, the projects with
life and activity would have left SF sometime ago?

~~~
coffeeaddicted
Not really. At least when it comes to desktop software a lot of free software
projects I use regularly are hosted on sourceforge. Don't confuse the
popularity of github on Hacker News with general popularity.

~~~
uxp
Conversely, a lot of free software I use on both the desktop and on servers is
hosted on GitHub. (I'm not sure how this argument is a rebuttal against GitHub
acquiring SourceForge)

Though, GitHub is in the collaboration business. They take the standard git
model and remove 99% of the complexity of me trying to share my repo with my
co-workers while I'm at a coffee shop and can't passthrough a NAT router, for
example. Hosting software is kind of a by-product. SourceForge has always been
about software, not collaboration between people. Buying SourceForge wouldn't
solve anything since dead software will still be dead software without someone
to take the reigns and become a manager of incoming patches and contributing
him or herself, which all can be done without spending 20 million.

~~~
coffeeaddicted
Wasn't a rebuttal against GitHub acquiring SourceForge but against "the
projects with life and activity would have left SF sometime ago".

------
dredmorbius
[http://www.google.com/trends/?q=slashdot,+digg,+reddit,+hack...](http://www.google.com/trends/?q=slashdot,+digg,+reddit,+hacker+news&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

~~~
zerohm
Just out of curiosity, what Sub-Reddits have interesting tech discussion? I
love reddit for interesting/ridiculous/obscure internet finds, but I don't see
a lot of leading edge tech/business talk.

~~~
dredmorbius
I'm still exploring that myself. There's /r/linuxadmin, but traffic's fairly
low. You can toss search terms at the front page (sitewide) or through
Google/DDG and see where you end up.

I'm having better luck at focused technical discussion on Stack Exchange
rather than Reddit. I've found a few non-technical subreddits of interest
though. For that, it's been a pretty phenomenal community builder. Better than
any other forum I'm currently aware of, HN included (though HN's focus on tech
and the startup world is pretty good).

Farmsteading Reddit seems to work reasonably well, though it takes time to
generate traction. Seed, fertilize, and weed.

------
languagehacker
This would be like Monster.com purchasing Fark.com. Not really news because
none of those things have mattered for years.

------
bane
So basically geeknet = thinkgeek. Is this some kind of really delayed stealth
IPO?

~~~
Codhisattva
No but it could be prime for an Amazon acquisition.

GKNT is already public <http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GKNT>

~~~
bane
Sorry I should have been more clear. Yeah, geeknet _is_ already publicly
traded, but with these divestitures, their only remaining property is
thinkgeek.

I agree it looks like they're setting up for a sale of some sort, especially
in light of some recentish departures from Thinkgeek management clearing the
way for an acquisition.

<http://investors.geek.net/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=701230>

 _edit_

also this makes sense in light of their Q2 financials, with their media
properties losing money (no wonder the acquisition by Dice was at 1x revenue)

<http://investors.geek.net/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=697536>

 _ThinkGeek e-commerce revenue increased 24 percent to $17.8 million for the
second quarter of 2012, compared to $14.3 million for the second quarter of
2011.

Orders received increased by 21 percent in the second quarter of 2012 as
compared with the same period last year.

Media revenue decreased 8 percent to $5.3 million for the second quarter of
2012, compared to $5.8 million for the second quarter of 2011.

Total cash and investments at the end of second quarter 2012 was $34.6
million._

TG has long been the revenue backbone for geeknet. Getting rid of the other
properties effectively makes TG the same as geeknet meaning TG is now
effectively a publicly traded company.

 _edit 2_

also it looks like they were grouping geeknet media into a bundle prepping for
a possible sale for a while, that division even had it's own web site that
doesn't seem to have much purpose beyond trying to promote the properties as
sales targets

<http://geeknetmedia.com/>

------
hnriot
I, for one, welcome our new Dice Holdings overlords.

I used to love slashdot, coffee and a discussion about boot loaders for
breakfast. It all went to rat shit of course, but that's just the natural
order of the universe.

------
xyzzyb
Wow. I remember when my older brother introduced me to /. when I was a teenage
nerd just starting to run Linux in 1998. There weren't even user accounts.

Now I feel like reading a Jon Katz article for nostalgia.

~~~
smacktoward
That would be an excellent way of curing yourself of the risk of ever feeling
nostalgia again.

~~~
mongol
Ha ha... I found this
([http://tech.slashdot.org/story/01/11/17/204207/message-
from-...](http://tech.slashdot.org/story/01/11/17/204207/message-from-kabul)):

(About "Junis", a hacker from Kabul two months after 9/11)

There are many computers in Afghanistan, Junis said, many in clusters in
cities like Kabul and Kandahar (news reports have frequently mentioned that
Bin-Laden's organization used both e-mail and encrypted files to communicate).
Computer geeks are already hooking up with one another all over the country;
Junis isn't the only Afghan e-mailing these days. He says other coders and
gamers hid their PC's as well. Meanwhile, he's especially eager to get his
hands on the Apple iPod, and has been drooling over the Apple website site
since he got back online. And some things, of course, never change. "I thought
they were going to get Microsoft," he wrote. "I guess not."

------
willvarfar
I was so pleased when I acquired the username `bogomips` on sf. Never did use
it for much though.

Sad how obvious it is how it slipped away long before github filled the
vacuum.

------
Codhisattva
Seems like GeekNet is going to focus on ThinkGeek.com. Good move I'd say. Well
unless their next step is to sell it to Amazon (a la woot.com).

------
cicero19
If they are generating $20m/yr in revenue doesn't a $20m purchase seem a bit
low? How did they agree on $20m?

~~~
ebrescia
According to TechCrunch, they are on track to do $5 MM in EBITDA, so they have
about $15 MM in annual operating costs (before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortization). This means that Dice paid about 4x operating profits.

Here's the link: [http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/18/dice-holdings-buys-
slashdot...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/18/dice-holdings-buys-slashdot-
sourceforge-and-freecode-from-geeknet/)

~~~
bduerst
$20m is the price you would expect. Rule of thumb is 3 years earnings + a
little extra for goodwill/brand name/human capital.

------
ChuckMcM
Well you can jump the shark and sometimes the shark eats you. Too bad.

------
rdzgtdsv
Will it mean any changes for my project hosted on SourceForge?

~~~
mariuz
maybe more dice ads

------
bgilroy26
That's like, half of the internet!

------
blerrrgh
Oh man, look at the awful sites currently maintained by Dice Holdings...

> <http://www.dice.com/> (recruiting and career development)

> <http://www.efinancialcareers.com/> (finance recruiting and career
> development, UK)

> <http://www.clearancejobs.com/> (U.S. government security clearance career
> development)

> <http://www.rigzone.com/> (oil and gas industry content/advertising)

> <http://www.allhealthcarejobs.com/> (healthcare career development)

> <http://www.targetedjobfairs.com/> (IT and security related career fairs and
> open houses)

~~~
drivingmenuts
I think it's fairly likely that their new acquisitions will be used to drive
traffic to their job hunting sites. The more active members of SF and FC are
pretty much ripe targets for recruiting messages driving them to job hunts.

Given the sad state of the economy, the more active of them will make for a
good pool of hiring candidates.

*there was a complete thought in there, but it derailed on the word economy.

