Digg

Digg, which once raised $45 million, was sold Thursday for $500,000. (Digg)

By Salvador Rodriguez

July 13, 2012, 12:54 p.m.

Though news broke that a technology firm purchased most of what was left of Digg for $500,000 Thursday, the total price of collapse of the once-promising site may be closer to $16 million.

Betaworks paid a reported $500,000 for the site, which reportedly gave the firm Digg's brand, website, technology and 7 million monthly visitors.

But since news of the sale broke, TechCrunch has been insistent that the total cost is much more than $500,000. The tech site says that when you factor in hires by a subsidiary of the Washington Post Co. and patent purchases by LinkedIn, the total price actually breaks the million-dollar mark.

SocialCode, the Washington Post Co. subsidiary, hired away 15 of Digg's staffers back in May. That was more than half of Digg's staff, and TechCrunch says it didn't come cheap either. The total cost of that came to $12 million.

Citing multiple sources, TechCrunch also reports LinkedIn purchased 15 of Digg's patents around the same time, and the business social network is believed to have paid between $3.75 million and $4 million for them.

That's where you get the $16 million number, but TechCrunch also waivers on the $500,000 price, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

TechCrunch says Betaworks' purchase of Digg could have actually been as much as $725,000.

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