Us blogging company Six Apart has acquired Pownce, a micro-blogging site that will shut down within two weeks.
Pownce, co-founded by Digg founder Kevin Rose along with Leah Culver and Daniel Burka, is known as the "Twitter killer." Unlike Twitter, in addition to allowing users to share messages, Pownce also offers embedded images, videos and MP3s. Prominent blogger Stan Schroeder has said that Twitter, the mobile blogging service, has slow upgrades, frequent crashes, slow speed and other shortcomings, and because Twitter developers did not fix these shortcomings in time, the product still lacks many new and even important features. Although Pownce is currently positioned as an instant messaging software, if it is revamped, it has the potential to become an alternative to Twitter and surpass Pownce in functionality.
Six Apart did not disclose the amount of the deal, but it is clear that Six Apart is mainly interested in Pownce users, rather than its products, as Pownce is set to shut down in two weeks.
Pownce co-founder Cowher and lead developer Mike Malone will join Six Apart, while two other founders, Ross and Boca, will serve as Six Apart advisors.
sina science and technology