Is a Digg Purchase Around the Corner?

The popular social-networking site, Digg, has been around for a while… close to four years. Many sites of such stature don’t normally last a single year before being snatched up, and for big money. Look at MySpace, for example. Paying attention to either TechCrunch or some other web 2.0-watching website will let you know just how often such sites get picked up.

So why has Digg still not been touched? Microsoft has a nice ad deal with the site, and numerous offers have been made, but no deal has ever been completed. Well, if this latest rumor is to be believed, then a sale might be very close, and I suppose it’s absolutely no surprise that the purchaser would be Google.

The sum? $200 million… which seems to be a tad low for a site with such a massive traffic-flow. After all, the likes of Facebook are worth billions, not millions. But, it would still be a nice pay day for Kevin Rose, it goes without saying. I’m personally just getting tired of Google wanting to own everything, but I sure wouldn’t blame Kevin and his crew if he jumped at the deal. Not surprisingly, prospects of how Google might kill Digg are already all over the place. We’ll see where this goes…

The companies are now in final negotiations according to our sources, although it could be a couple of weeks before it closes. And while the major deal points have been agreed on, the acquisition could still fall apart. Microsoft, which was previously interested in the company, may be willing to step back in at a much lower price.