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Slashdot, along with Sourceforge and Freecode have been sold to Dice Holdings, owners of tech job search site Dice.com.
The technology news site, best known for giving internet writers massive boosts to their readership if linked to and its never-ending debates on topics such as browser preferences, Slashdot was once valued at $150 million in 2005, having been originally sold by its creator Rob Malda, in 1999 for $1.5 million in cash and $7 million in stock.
In the statement announcing the sale, now previous owner Geeknet said that combined, Slashdot, Sourceforge and Freecode generated around $20 million in revenue a year.
“The acquisition of these premier technology sites fits squarely into our strategy of providing content and services that are important to tech professionals in their everyday work lives,” said Scot Melland, Chairman, President & CEO of Dice Holdings, Inc. “The SourceForge and Slashdot communities will enable our customers to reach millions of engaged tech professionals on a regular basis and significantly extends our company's reach into the global tech community.”
Ken Langone, Chairman of Geeknet, added, “We are very pleased to find a new home for our media business, providing a platform for the sites and our media teams to thrive. With this transaction completed, we will now focus our full attention on growing ThinkGeek.”
While some might question why a career website might be interested in a community like Slashdot, the CFO of Dice suggested that it was hoped the tech savvy community would not only help people get jobs through platforms like Dice, but that it would also help them manage those careers. At the very least, by combining the two services in some manner, it seems likely that Dice users would become more well informed.
KitGuru Says: So what about it guys? While this might make sense for Geeknet, is this a move that benefits Slashdot users, or will the site continue to slide into irrelevancy with the growth of popular hangouts like Reddit?
