One of the blogging worlds best known brands is no longer with news today that SixApart, the company behind MovableType and TypePad, has been acquired by VideoEgg.

Founded in September 2001 by husband and wife team Ben and Mena Trott, SixApart drove the first great growth wave in blogging through its blog content management platform MovableType.

After taking an initial round of funding in 2003, SixApart launched TypePad, a hosted blogging service based on the MovableType code that for many years became the most popular paid/ professional hosted blog service in the market, attracting pro bloggers and media companies alike.

The company continued to expand, acquiring LiveJournal in 2005, then later launching Vox, a social media oriented hosted blogging solution that was meant to compete with the rise of services such as Tumblr and WordPress.com.

A critical mistake in the early history of the company was to force paid licensing on users of MovableType. It was a move I was highly critical of at the time, and it alone created the rise of WordPress, then a rarely used CMS with little interest in the blogging community, and subsequently drove the rise of Automattic. The effect of that move can’t be underestimated in the long term: although SixApart went on to be successful in other areas, its decision to cut off its community in an attempt to raise money was a mistake. A decision in later years to open source MovableType, while welcomed by many, was sadly for the company a case of too little, too late with WordPress having by that time become the defacto standard in self hosted blogging, and most importantly, the platform with the strongest (free) community development.

SixApart did attempt to branch out into new markets, including blog advertising, with mixed results. The rise of social media sites including Facebook saw a switch in the rapid growth in blogging to one of a mature market, and its products suffered at the hands of trendier, and usually free or freemium competitors.

Although the company isn’t going badly today, it’s once greatness has been sadly dwarfed by others.

Under the acquisition, the combined SixApart/ VideoEgg will be known as SAY Media with VideoEgg CEO Matt Sanchez at the helm. Statements from both companies say that they intend to retain MovableType and TypePad, however speculation is rife that at least one service may be sold off.

Regards to the team at SixApart, including the brilliant Anil Dash, Ben and Mena Trott, and the rest of the team. I may not have always been your greatest fan, but there is little doubt that without your contributions to blogging, this great space may not have risen to what it is today without you.

End Of An Era As SixApart Is Acquired By VideoEgg is a post from: The Inquisitr

Where will blogging head in the next year? Using my crystal ball here’s my list for 2009.

1. The rise of the uberblogs

This prediction has its own post here. I’m convinced that at the top of the blogosphere this will be THE big trend this year, and we’ll finally see new media challenging old media head on because of it.

2. Increased uptake in Commenting 2.0 services

2008 was really the first year commenting 2.0 services really took off, but they are still have minor market share across the blogosphere. In 2009 people will be looking for better ways of enabling the conversation, and commenting services like Disqus, Sezwho, JS-Kit and IntenseDebate will thrive.

3. Consolidation in Commenting 2.0 services/ acquisitions

The increased interest in commenting 2.0 though will see consolidation in the sector as one or two services win most of the new business. This could mean consolidation as one or more services close, but more likely we’ll see IP buys in the field. Intense Debate has already been acquired by Automattic, so they’re off the list. SixApart will acquire one of these services given any of them would be a perfect fit alongside SixApart products and other SixApart acquisitions. My bet: SixApart will acquire Disqus. Don’t count out Technorati as a possible acquirer either for similar reasons.

4. Facebook to become major blog service player

We’re only now just starting to see the first stage of Facebook Connect services, including the ability to use Facebook accounts to comment on blogs. My prediction is that Facebook integration into blogs will explode in 2009 as more services seek to tap in to Facebook, and as Facebook wants to extend its presence onto blogs. We’ve already seen a Facebook written WordPress plugin (not sure if this has been released yet, but it was leaked at one stage), expect more from Facebook. The key here is that Facebook, facing a slow down in 2009 will want to be everywhere to maximize its exposure and use.

5. The traditional blog layout will decline

We’ve already seen the rise of the magazine layout for blogs; in 2009 the availability of alternate layouts to a traditional blog layout will thrive, and the ability of users to implement these will get easier (WordPress is making a lot of these tasks easier now). We’ll see a lot of variations on the theme, many not really being magazine in style, but we’ll still be calling them that because magazine theme has become a generic term for anything not traditional. For a couple of examples of interesting variations, see Gawker and Huffington Post.

6. Technorati will be acquired

It wouldn’t be a predictions list from me without an entry that suggests Technorati will be acquired. Every year I’ve predicted this I’ve been wrong, but I’m more confident in 2009. Having failed to complete a merger with b5media is 2008, my guess is Technorati’s investors are looking for an out. Having entered the blog advertising field with Technorati Media (disclosure they provide our ads…well some of them) and the acquisition of Ad Engage (now Technorati Engage), Technorati is building revenue streams and becomes more appealing for an exit. My guess: they’ll be acquired by an ad network or metrics company, more likely the first option though.

7. SixApart overhauls MovableType, becomes a player again

SixApart has done some great things this year, and despite my history with the company (and probably even to this day me not being overly popular there) I can say at the close of 2008 that they’re now one of my favorite companies in the space. The release of MovableType as open source opened the community door at SixApart, but the platform still lacks for user friendliness…particularly with templating.

My prediction is that seeing how successful WordPress continues to be, SixApart will release a new version of MovableType, or even a completely new, PHP based blogging platform that will take the good fight to WordPress. SixApart is already working hard in development, having recently released a lifestreaming platform, I’m betting even better is ahead.

8. Widget providers will fall

There has been far too many blog widget providers in the market for far too long, and with 2009 going to be tough for funding, many will fall. No names, because I don’t know the economics of each, but this space most consolidate.

9. Old Media will acquire a record number of blogs

Blogging as a business proposition becomes even more appealing in 2009 due to its low costs and high appeal. Old media is about to face its worst year on record, and those with cash to spare will acquire blogs in an attempt to broaden their business base online.

My guess in tech blogging is that we’ll see at least two A-list blogs/ blog networks acquired. Silicon Alley Insider is top of my list: lean operation, high yield readership even with the economic crisis, and a nice fit in with a newspaper group or TV station. NBC or News Corp for the buy. Mashable and VentureBeat possibles; I like Mashable on the acquisition front because of the broader appeal and higher traffic.

Below the top we’ll see lots of smaller acquisitions, strategic plays where blogs join the bigger entity in a complimentary fashion.

Also don’t rule out advertisers and advertising firms buying in the space either; what better way to place advertising than to own the place you want to advertise.

10. The Inquisitr will become Australia’s largest independent blog by traffic

Actually, it might already be close, hard to tell. News Ltd newspapers will threaten to sue us again, we’ll continue to not link to them, and if I’m really lucky, Fairfax (Australia’s second largest newspaper group) might take a stake, presuming they don’t fold in the mean time. That will give us access to AFP/ AP and Reuters content, and allow us to grow to 10 million page views. About mid year we’ll run topless photos of a celebrity and get blocked by the Australian Government’s Great Firewall of Australia, resulting in a large VPN bill for me to run the site….or we’ll relocate to New Zealand

Blogging Predictions for 2009 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Blogging platform and service provider SixApart have announced an 8% cut in its workforce, along with a management pay cut.

The cut amount to 16 employees from a workforce of around 200 people, 90 of whom were employed in the last 12 months. The job cuts are accompanied by a company wide restructure, including the amalgamation of SixApart’s marketing, community, and support groups in a new “genius group;” an increase in staff via internal transfer into SixApart services, the professional services group that caters to commercial customers; and a renewed commitment to SixApart Media, the launched in April blog advertising arm.

CEO Chris Alden said in a post to the SixApart blog that management would be taking a 15% pay cut as part of the restructure.

More details on the SixApart blog here.

(img credit)

SixApart cuts 8% of workforce, management take a pay cut is a post from: The Inquisitr

Michael at TechCrunch notes that TypePad AntiSpam takes a multi-headed heuristic approach to detecting and blocking comment spam on blogs and in his testing was superior to Akismet. Mollom is another new service in this space (I covered it for TechCrunch in April).

The two great features about TypePad AntiSpam: it’s open source and it has a killer price: free, unlike the closed source and pay for serious use Akismet. It’s also available for WordPress blogs as well as those powered by SixApart products, immediately delivering SixApart a huge potential market.

It’s great to see competition in antispam products, and it has been long overdue, but times are changing. We are seeing a move away from local comment hosting to services such as Disqus, Sezwho and others, outsourcing spam management along with comment management to other companies. The numbers on paper may be small so far, but the trend away from local comment management is on, and even sites such as Venturebeat are now using Disqus. Notably both Sezwho and Disqus are using Akismet for spam filtering.

So where does this leave Akismet and TypePad AntiSpam? There will always be a corporate need for antispam tools, and ultimately this is where the potential profits in service provision rest. Some bloggers will remain using local commenting systems and they’ll need services like these, however expect those numbers to become a minority within 2-3 years.

TypePad AntiSpam Is Welcomed, But Times Are Changing is a post from: The Inquisitr