At the last minute, Google decided against purchasing social networking site Digg for $200 million, TechCrunch reports. The agreement, which seemed like a done deal just last Wednesday, had reached the final stages of due diligence when Google decided the deal wasn’t in its best interests. As TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington writes:
Two sources close to the companies suggested that some issue that came up during technical due diligence was to blame. One source said that the issue was more personality driven, and that Google decided after spending more time with Digg’s top team that there just wasn’t a fit.
And that leaves Microsoft. Will it swoop in and grab Digg now that Google has passed it over? Or, as Arrington says, is Digg fast becoming tainted goods: “When a company is ‘left at the altar’ other buyers are usually hesitant to step in.” And Digg’s been left at the altar multiple times now.
