Interesting line in PandoDaily’s article a couple of days ago about TechCrunch – “Kara Swisher was kicking some tires [about buying TechCrunch] to add the brands to the expanding All Things D franchise.”
Then a full retraction yesterday:
There’s only one part of yesterday’s story that I regret, and that’s mentioning Kara Swisher as a possible buyer. That was my screw up. Sarah didn’t want to put it in, because Swisher hadn’t responded to her attempts to contact her for confirmation. I had heard the “tire kicking” rumour from someone who was in a position to know, and so I felt it important to include Swisher in the paragraph speculating on possible buyers. When Swisher and Sarah finally spoke, Swisher flatly denied the suggestion, adding that her statements about wanting to buy TechCrunch had been just a joke.
Kara’s tweets on the first story:
I founded TechCrunch, so my interest level in hearing the truth about anyone trying to buy it is high. So I called a few people to track down where the story came from.
And here’s what I found. Swisher contacted multiple TechCrunch employees, AOL executives and others about buying TechCrunch earlier this year. She definitely had a “ha ha” attitude about it, but said that Tim Armstrong had personally reached out to her about buying TechCrunch, that “It’s not getting sold for real money,” and that she wanted to know how the writers would, ha ha, feel about her taking over.
Her relationship with News Corp. is less than perfect and, say multiple sources, News Corp. vetoed her attempt to staff up big after the TechCrunch disintegration late last year, to fill that void. Her contract with News Corp. is up in 2013, she hasn’t been happy with that relationship and is looking for a way to move on, say sources who spoke with her.
Hilarious.
Uncrunched 