Blogging software maker Six Apart Dec. 3 said it has sold social networking software maker LiveJournal to Russian online media company SUP for an undisclosed sum. Six Apart acquired LiveJournal in January 2005 from its founder, Brad Fitzpatrick, who went on to join Google as its social networking guru. SUP is no stranger to LiveJournal; the Moscow-based company has been managing LiveJournal in Russia since October 2006, where it is extremely popular. Under the terms of the deal, SUP and Six Apart will work together to transfer operations to LiveJournal. The team that worked exclusively on LiveJournal at Six Apart has moved to LiveJournal Inc., where new general manager, marketing and sales teams will be recruited.
LiveJournal is credited with bringing friends lists and privacy controls to the mainstream social networking world, which is ruled by sites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others that boast millions of users. Like most sectors in high tech, the social media market has been experiencing considerable consolidation; startups are joining larger vendors to survive or thrive in the competitive market for user-generated media.