Copy, Paste, Get Acquired: Mister Wong Buys FreundeNews

Construktiv, the company behind social bookmarking service Mister Wong and Lifestream.fm, has acquired FreundeNews, a German service blatantly modeled and designed after the example of FriendFeed (the startup was actually called FreundeFeed when it first launched in April 2008 but changed its name sometime after, most probably in fear of sparking a trademark dispute).

Let’s hope this isn’t an encouragement to copy/paste innovation, althought Construktiv is most likely simply doing this to clear the path for their lifestreaming service Lifestream.fm to become the only relevant one in Germany. Although the deal terms remain undisclosed, we believe that it was rather small in size; we’re told FreundeNews usage was relatively low in the country and the founders were keen on pursuing other ventures.

The users that did engage with the web service have 4 weeks to transition to Lifestream.fm, starting today.

(Hat tip to Netzwertig)