Digg founder Kevin Rose to join Google, sources say

“Digg founder Kevin Rose has been hired by Google, according to sources close to the situation,” Liz Gannes reports for AllThingsD. “Rose’s mobile app incubator Milk yesterday announced it was shutting down its only product, Oink.”

“More people familiar with the deal said the rest of the Milk team is joining Google, with employees netting $1 million to $2 million each. although I’m still trying to nail down the value of the overall transaction. Milk investors are getting their initial investment money back plus a little extra, sources said,” Gannes reports. “Rose’s first day at Google is to be this Monday, the sources said.”

Gannes reports, “Google had been very close to buying Digg in 2008, but the deal fell apart at the last minute.”

Read more in the full article here.

14 Comments

  1. DON’T do it….

    http://www.oink.com/

    “If you don’t know your username, open the Oink app on your iPhone. Tap on your profile (bottom right), tap “Your activity”, and your username will be displayed in the bar at the top of the screen.”

    …as Google will harness your data. LOL.

  2. Halleloo! Like most people – & I’m an early adopting techie – I was never into Digg. I downloaded Oink but never got to use it. Congratulations, Google, on another worthless, non-value-adding acquisition & wastage of shareholder money!

  3. Why is this relevant? Well, consider all of the bogus and silly predictions Mr. Rose kept making about Apple’s product announcements – this one from December 2006 is a great example. He claims to have inside information, yet is wayyyyy off in far too many key areas. (“2 batteries”? “Slide-out keyboard”?)

    Now, just imagine that kind of prognostication power at work within Google!

    Actually, come to think of it… some of that actually sounds a lot like the random mish-mash approach Google has taken with Android.

    So, he’ll fit right in then.

  4. “Google had been very close to buying Digg in 2008, but the deal fell apart at the last minute.”

    And Digg fell apart shortly thereafter. Apparently Kevin’s ‘Milk’ project has also curdled, thus his being free to move on elsewhere.

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