• Valleywag, Wednesday, July 16, 2008 10:45 AM

Valleywag's Nicholas Carlson on Tuesday floated the rumor that Michael Arrington's blog TechCrunch will be imminently sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Carlson claims that a startup founder over the weekend overheard TechCrunch writers celebrating the sale of TechCrunch to News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit. He said that the deal had been signed but won't be made public until TechCrunch's summer party. Another unnamed source corroborated the rumor, but News Corp. flatly denied that a deal was on.

Carlson claims Arrington is desperate to sell, but joining FIM "makes little sense on the surface" because, for one thing, FIM chief Peter Levinsohn is far from being one of Arrington's fans. In fact, he suggests that Arrington's volatile personality might be the biggest thing standing in the way of a TechCrunch sale. Time Warner's AOL had been interested in buying TC only for the deal to fall through because AOL "worried about Arrington's mental stability and doubted whether the brand would survive if the mercurial blogger left." In other words, they were worried about him staying and going. CNET, before being scooped up by CBS, was also reportedly interested in the blog, but later decided that too much of its value was wrapped up in Arrington.

Which raises a good point: are blogs worth anything as brands? Or is it all about the personalities who write for them? Either way, it will be interesting to see what happens to TC if indeed Arrington plans to cash out and retire.

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