TechCrunch reports that the Google and FeedBurner deal, which has been a rumour for the last week or so, has been confirmed by source ‘close to the deal.’ Currently in its closing stages, Google is buying FeedBurner for an estimated price of $100 million, a terrific price for a niche service aimed at a few hundred thousand bloggers and podcasters.
As per the deal, the FeedBurner founders will be locked into staying with Google for the next couple of years and the $100 million sum is to be paid mostly by cash upfront. Founded in 2003, FeedBurner has raised around $20 million of venture capital, coming from firms including Portage Ventures, Mobius Venture Capital, and Union Square Ventures. For their investors and founders, there’s no doubt this is a large payout.
For Google, this acquisition will mean tapping into FeedBurner’s 400,000 publishers and their audiences — no doubt somewhere in the tens of millions. And since being a FeedBurner publisher gains you access to a lot of things — all a click away from being ‘enabled’ — this will mean that Google will be able to offer its publishers that something extra, not to mention its current bunch of ‘moneteize me’ feeds a large number of new advertisers (DoubleClick, anyone?).
Opinion
First, a huge congratulations to the FeedBurner team. I’ve been a user for more than two or so years now, and they’ve certainly given me, as a Publisher, everything they possibly can — not to mention the eye-candy stats on my feed. 
For FeedBurner, this deal counts as an exit strategy a startup these days can only dream of, and for Google this is a big steal — there’s no limit to where they’ll be able to take the service and all who are involved. Being an AdSense, Analytics, and FeedBurner user, I’m waiting to see what Google does with it.
