What Happened To Gigaom?
Since 2006, website Gigaom has been a go-to site for tech news and accessible science. As recently as yesterday, Gigaom was posting articles about Apple’s tech announcements and HBO’s new streaming service. And then, the site posted a message to readers.
“Gigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time. As a result, the company is working with its creditors that have rights to all of the company’s assets as their collateral. All operations have ceased. We do not know at this time what the lenders intend to do with the assets or if there will be any future operations using those assets. The company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy. We would like to take a moment and thank our readers and our community for supporting us all along.”
Reactions in the blogosphere and social media spread quickly. The New York Times reports that upon calling Gigaom for comment, someone picked up the phone, said “No,” and hung up again. Kara Swisher of Re/Code wrote that she texted site founder Om Malik for comment, and received back simply “Not now, dude.”
Malik later took to his own website to write a goodbye.
“There will be time for postmortems, but not today. Today, I want to thank all the people who make (and have helped make) Gigaom. Their role in this journey was what really made it all worth it. They are great people and they will all do great work wherever they go. I want to thank our investors who believed in the business long before it became fashionable. And most importantly, I want to thank you dear readers for coming along on this trip of a lifetime.”
And both fans and staffers tweeted about their sorrow at the closing of Gigaom‘s doors.
RIP Gigaom. Your unsensationalized analysis of complicated & unsexy topics was fleeker than a mofo. https://t.co/y2VxJaCKpW
— Startup L. Jackson (@StartupLJackson) March 10, 2015
This hurts more than I can say: I was just told Gigaom is shutting down — it has run out of money. We tried our best, but it wasn’t enough. — Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) March 10, 2015
Old (print) and new (digital) media/publishing companies suffering & being slayed alike (Re: Gigaom). So, no one has figured this out, YET.
— Tefo (@TefoMohapi) March 10, 2015
It’s tough to think I won’t be able to count on @Gigaom for my tech news http://t.co/QYznBfeM7e — Jason Smith (@jruels) March 10, 2015
Sad day. @Gigaom was a great. Really helped me understand tech biz/policy scene for many years. Some great reporters too. @jeffjohnroberts
— Daniel O’Connor (@dh_oconnor) March 10, 2015
Just walked out of Gigaom for the last time. Thank you everyone. I will miss you all for rest of my life! http://t.co/IBOhRuZ4DZ — Om Malik (@om) March 10, 2015
With the company not filing for bankruptcy, it’s difficult to know what the next evolution of Gigaom will be. What would you like to see from the company? Tell us in the comments.
