WebProNews

Six Apart, the parent company behind hosted blogging service TypePad and publishing platform Movable Type, is about to acquire Live Journal for an undisclosed amount ...

... reports Business 2.0 writer Om Malik.

If the deal goes through later this month, then Six Apart will become one of the largest weblog companies in the world, with nearly 6.5 million users. It also gives the company a very good fighting chance against Google's Blogger and Microsoft's MSN Spaces.

Interesting how Om comments on this news as "giving Six Apart a very good fighting chance against Blogger and MSN Spaces." Those two blogging services are, to provide a level of differentiation, aimed primarily at the newbie 'consumer blogger' to get up and running in 10 minutes or so, where you need absolutely no tech knowledge in order to blog using these free services.

By comparison, TypePad (subscription service) and Live Journal (free/paid mixture) are targeted at the more tech-savvy and/or 'committed blogger' audience. Not only that, Six Apart's Movable Type represents an excellent platform for strongly tackling the enterprise blogging market - which many, including me, are predicting will be a hot area in 2005.

The volume market is with Blogger and MSN Spaces, but the money and enterprise-push potential is with TypePad and Live Journal - all, no doubt, the same revenue-rich areas both Google and Microsoft want to be in sooner or later.

In any event, things are moving very fast indeed in the business of blogs.

Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology. Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson's blog: NevilleHobson.com.