Pioneering Tech Blog GigaOm Is Shutting Down

GigaOm, a tech blog founded by journalist turned VC Om Malik, is shutting down after finding itself unable to repay creditors. The site has been serving up tech news (and has served as a direct competitor to TechCrunch) since 2006.

Initially Twitter chatter backed up reports of the site’s demise. “Gigaom is shutting down. The site. And the company. But Om built something amazing and it changed my life. I love him and my colleagues,” wrote senior writer Stacey Higginbotham. Soon after posts appeared on both on GigaOm and Malik’s own site.

As of 5:57PM Pacific Time this note appeared on the site:

A brief note on our companyGigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time. As a result, the company is working with its creditors that have rights to all of the company’s assets as their collateral. All operations have ceased. We do not know at this time what the lenders intend to do with the assets or if there will be any future operations using those assets. The company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy. We would like to take a moment and thank our readers and our community for supporting us all along.— Gigaom management

Wrote Malik:

There will be time for postmortems, but not today. Today, I want to thank all the people who make (and have helped make) Gigaom. Their role in this journey was what really made it all worth it. They are great people and they will all do great work wherever they go. I want to thank our investors who believed in the business long before it became fashionable. And most importantly, I want to thank you dear readers for coming along on this trip of a lifetime.

Malik and GigaOm management did not respond to requests for comment.

GigaOm long melded tech news with a vibrant events business and created a number of popular verticals. The home page remains up and is displaying news related to today’s Apple event.