Ben Huh offers to buy Reddit

http://thedailywh.at/post/1021998482/stop-what-youre-doing-and-read-the-hell-out-of

by ssclafani • 16 years ago

114 60 16 years ago

MisterWebz• 16 years ago

Well, this is getting very interesting.

jacquesm14• 16 years ago

Is this guy actually in a position to follow through or is he just cleverly using the controversy to further his own goal without an actual intent to commit? I take it reddit would not be sold for 'pocket change'.

enjo• 16 years ago

This wired article mentions that he likely did something close to $4M in revenue a year ago:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/mf_cheezking/

If this is the sole source of income, then I doubt that they're in any position to afford Reddit. Although they definitely have the investor connections to probably roll it up.

gyardley• 16 years ago

That Wired article mentioned that Cheezburger Network did 'over 200MM pageviews a month', so with $4MM in revenue for the year that's an RPM of well north of $1.50. Seriously, that's stellar given the quality of the inventory.

Given that, I'm sure they could make a lot of money with Reddit - buying it would be a sound investment.

davepeck• 16 years ago

I suspect Ben Huh is _definitely_ in a position to follow through.

jacquesm14• 16 years ago

Good, so how come he didn't follow protocol on this? After all, after such a stunt CN is likely going to give him the cold shoulder just for that. I can't imagine they're happy about this if he's for real.

The redditors have been at odds with CN pretty much since day 5 of the take over or so, and every time I hear about them it's something like this.

If they were going to dump reddit you'd think they would have done so long ago.

MartinCron5• 16 years ago

I agree. I worked at Cheezburger until a few months ago I know (and like) Ben pretty well.

I'm sure that neither Cheezburger nor Ben have enough in the bank to make CN a decent offer for Reddit, but he has investors with deep pockets, the media loves him, and even though he's not universally loved in internet culture circles, he's probably more popular than CN. He could raise the funds.

Now, is this a good idea for anyone? I really don't think so, but that hasn't ever stopped Ben before.

rumpelstiltskin• 16 years ago

Reddit would benefit from more resources and less corporate interference. We can offer all of the above.

How does working in the sweatshop that is the Cheezburger Network = less coporate interference?

Edit for clarification: http://www.google.com/search?q=cheezburger+network+sweatshop

didip• 16 years ago

I'm curious, why Cheezburger Network is a sweatshop? Any experience first hand? or employees there blog about how sucky the company is?

tvon• 16 years ago

I don't know myself, but the article has this link in the comments:

http://gawker.com/5488509/inside-the-low+paying-cheezburger-...

and that post has this comment:

http://gawker.com/comment/20269906/

shrug

MartinCron5• 16 years ago

I worked at Cheezburger until a few months ago. Here's the deal with the sweatshop charges. It comes down to three items.

1. Disgruntled ex-employees are disgrunted. 2. Entry-level positions are entry-level. 3. Sleazy tabloids are sleazy.

While I worked there (as an experienced developer, not a fresh-out-of-college content moderator) I was a "real" employee (not contract) and I made a very decent wage, especially considering it's at least nominally a tech startup. (I wouldn't describe it as a tech startup but that's a different story).

shortformblog• 16 years ago

Heh, I was wondering why I was getting a bunch of traffic on that article all of a sudden. (My article's the top result on that query.)

That said, though, he pays minimum wage for work that for all effective purposes requires a college degree. And he stands behind that as if it's sound policy. (See here, though I'm sure it's posted elsewhere in this thread: http://www.benhuh.com/2010/02/02/are-you-what-you-earn-compe... )

Let's be clear: It's nowhere near as bad as what sites like Examiner.com and Demand Media do. If anything, it's part of a bad, disturbing trend.

EDIT to be a bit more evenhanded

ahlatimer• 16 years ago

If he truly believes that advertising high wages leads to bad candidates, then why advertise wages at all? It seems to me that if you are offering wages that low, you will end up with a bunch of candidates who don't think very highly of their abilities. That isn't the sort of environment I would want to be a part of.

I, for one, wouldn't work for near minimum-wage, but that isn't because I have an inability to control my expenses [1] or I don't believe I could work my way from Jr. Developer to Sr. Developer. I wouldn't work for that because I expect my employer to respect me and my abilities, and an offer that low would be, quite frankly, an insult. I've invested a lot of time and effort to get to where I am, and I expect any potential employer to recognize that. If they didn't recognize that, why hire me at all?

[1]: I could roughly continue living my life at the wages he posted ($8.55-$10/hr).

whatusername• 16 years ago

I wonder if Ben Huh is nodex? http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/cnth8/making_...

nlogn• 16 years ago

nodex posted this in that thread: "I would hate to see it get done the wrong way though and become hyper-commercialized and end up being an ad laden site with only pictures of cats..."

Eerily prophetic I fear, if this Ben Huh guy gets his hands on reddit.

Android• 16 years ago

Yeah, he's the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen to the site.

kunjaan• 16 years ago

All web entrepreneurs hurry up before the controversy dies. You too can profit from this mess up.

jacquesm14• 16 years ago

Pretty cheap, really. If you're serious about an acquisition you first approach the target and if you both agree to go public you go public. Anything else is just a publicity stunt, or at a minimum smells strongly like one.

bl4k2• 16 years ago

am I the only redditor that doesn't want this guy to buy the site?

CN may be bad, but this guy isn't exactly the epitome of professionalism

(edit: also not sure if the reddit guys will be up for both cheeseburger owners and cheeseburger wages: http://gawker.com/5488509/inside-the-low+paying-cheezburger-...)

nostromo• 16 years ago

Judging from the quantity of ads on his websites, no.

madair7• 16 years ago

Conde Nast isn't all fairies and rainbows. And we are on HN, hangout of cheezeburger wannabes everywhere.

iamjustlooking• 16 years ago

It would be interesting to see what changes they would make, that is if any, I'm sure they would though.

MartinCron5• 16 years ago

Disclaimer: I worked at Cheezburger, I know and love Ben. He doesn't appear to the epitome of professionalism, but that's part of his shtick as "the zany lolcat guy". He's actually a remarkable guy in a lot of ways. As arrogant as this may sound, he's one of the few people I've ever known who could take my ideas and reliably make them better. He's said some stupid things on his blog, but that's just a part of life.

The gawker article was pure tabloid junk, quoting anonymous sources who were disgruntled ex-employees. Compensation was always at market rates, entry-level positions had entry-level pay, while professional positions had professional pay.

He's not perfect, he's young and is still making mistakes (I still think firing me was a big mistake, for example, but I can't really talk about that) but don't discount his professionalism.

kemayo• 16 years ago

It is reasonably impressive to find someone who can leave the people he fires talking about how great he is.

staunch• 16 years ago

He's probably got it in his mind that CN would be willing to dump it for $3 million or some other low ball number.

Reddit was purchased for something like $15 million. I doubt they'd sell it for less than $30 million (if at all). This guy is just tilting at windmills.

michaelbuckbee• 16 years ago

I'm not sure, CN seems fundamentally unable to figure out how to make Reddit into a profitable venture. It wouldn't be the first startup purchased by a large corporate entity to be sold off for less than the initial purchase price.

jacquesm14• 16 years ago

But reddit has grown enormously in that time. So the potential has grown as well, the fact that CN can't make it work is not going to stop some other party from trying very hard.

What's interesting is that they can't monetize it at this traffic level, even with only four employees.

grahamb• 16 years ago

He also offered to buy my reasonably successful blog for $200. True story.

jacquesm14• 16 years ago

Reminds me of the weekly offers I get for ww.com: "I see that you are not using your domain and we were wondering if you would sell it. We can offer you [insert 5 random figures here] and we would like to use escrow.com please reply asap."

[delete].

chopsueyar• 16 years ago

This is a joke, I assume.

Do you use Red5 for ww?

ido2• 16 years ago

For their benefit i must admit i would have thought ww.com is some parked domain-squatter from a cursory glance if I didn't know better :)

The design looks a bit similar to a lot of these types of parked domains.

troymc• 16 years ago

Please don't use CN as shorthand in these comments as it's short for both Conde Nast and Cheezburger Network.

- on behalf of the Society for the Elimination of Ambiguity.

pavs• 16 years ago

CN > CN

Ben Huh offers to buy Reddit

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