Six Apart, latest acquisition by Yahoo! … ?

Six Apart, the owner of hosted blogging service TypePad and
publisher of blogging software Movable Type, just acquired LiveJournal.
Within six months Six Apart itself will be acquired by Yahoo!.

In an article titled "Yahoo to acquire Six Apart?", David Jackson makes an argument for why Six Apart may well be bought by Yahoo!.  I am a member of both and this prospect is quite an intriguing and exciting one.  The opening paragraph of Jackson’s article paints a realistic picture which sets the scene for his arguments which are based on the current competition between Yahoo!, Google and (to a lesser extent) Microsoft for users.  Of course the rapid growth of the blogging phenomenon is a key factor given its enormous potential for services such as lucrative pay-per-click advertising services like Google’s AdSense Program.

I have been wondering why Yahoo! hasn’t really been a presence in the blogosphere and it may be that they are plotting an awesome, news making acquisition that will really up the stakes for Google (with Blogger) and Microsoft (with its beta MSN Spaces service).  I don’t see any word on the Six Apart site or Mena’s blog but then again, we can hardly expect them to engage in speculation.  Look how well they kept the LiveJournal acquisition so quiet for so long.

Watch this space!