They call it Giga Omni Media for a reason. Om Malik’s blog empire just got a little bit bigger today with the acquisition TheAppleBlog. This comes a little over a month after he added mobile blog JKOnTheRun to his blog roster under the GigaOm brand (and two weeks after he joined True Ventures as a partner).
Terms were not disclosed, but it is unlikely he paid much for TheAppleBlog. It attracts much less traffic than some of the better known Apple blogs, such as AppleInsider or MacRumors. In fact, some the Apple-only blogs bring in more visitors than GigaOm (see chart above; GigaOm is in blue, TheAppleBlog is in red). If Om can help TheAppleBlog compete at the same level, it could have a huge impact on his business. Smart move.
At a time when other blogs such as Ars Technica and Paidcontent are selling themselves to larger media companies, Om is rolling up small blogs and adding them to his network. When he bought JKOnTheRun in July, Michael wrote:
I predict that this is just the beginning of the process that will accelerate over the next 12-18 months. Larger blogs lacking the stomach for competition will sell to large media corporations. The more competitive large blogs who want to see this thing through will start to acquire the smaller ones and group by topic areas. Whoever builds the network of the most interesting and prodigious voices will eventually “win.”
The blogosphere lends itself naturally to a roll-up strategy. After Om digests this one, who will he buy next?
(Disclosure: I used to work with Om at Business 2.0, and he is a personal friend).
