Kevin Rose Offers to Buy Pocket from Mozilla

Digg Expresses Interest in Acquiring Pocket

Digg, the link aggregator experiencing a revival, has indicated a willingness to purchase Pocket, Mozilla’s read-it-later application.

Mozilla's Decision to Discontinue Pocket

On Thursday, Mozilla announced the impending shutdown of Pocket, scheduled for July 8th. This decision stems from a perceived shift in web usage patterns, prompting Mozilla to concentrate on alternative development initiatives.

Following this announcement, Kevin Rose, Digg’s original founder and current co-founder alongside Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian, publicly expressed interest in acquiring Pocket via a post on X.

Digg's Acquisition Proposal

Rose’s post, directed at both Mozilla and Pocket, stated, “we love Pocket at @Digg, happy to take it over and continue to support your users for years to come!” He also tagged Peter Rojas, a founding partner at Betaworks and SVP of New Products at Mozilla.

As of now, neither Digg nor Mozilla has officially responded to inquiries regarding this potential acquisition.

Potential Synergies Between Digg and Pocket

A successful acquisition could prove beneficial, allowing Digg to utilize Pocket’s established user base to stimulate engagement with its relaunched platform.

Integration of Pocket’s reading list into Digg is also a possibility. This could streamline the process of discovering and sharing compelling content within the news aggregator.

Such integration could establish a consistent flow of news and articles into Digg as it focuses on expanding its user community.

Digg's Resurgence and Key Personnel

Digg’s return to the market is noteworthy, pairing original founder Kevin Rose with Alexis Ohanian, a key figure in the creation of Reddit.

Recently, Digg also welcomed Christian Selig, the creator of the popular third-party Reddit app Apollo, as an advisor.

Selig’s Apollo app provided a superior Reddit experience, but access was revoked due to substantial API price increases imposed by Reddit.

Other Potential Buyers

Digg wasn’t the sole party interested in Pocket. Tony Stubbleine, CEO of Medium, revealed he explored a purchase in 2023 but received no response from Mozilla prior to the shutdown announcement.

Stubbleine expressed frustration to TechCrunch, stating, “Not sure what Mozilla is doing, but it is kind of infuriating.”

He acknowledged the relative ease of rebuilding Pocket’s software, but highlighted the difficulty of replicating its existing web integrations and infrastructure.

“So I’m sure that someone would have taken it on,” Stubbleine concluded.

This article was updated following publication to include comments from Tony Stubbleine.