Gone were the good times of social news aggregator Digg, once a hot property on the info highway. However, with dismal performance in the recent times the tech company was sold to Betaworks for grabs say sources. Though both the techie’s confirmed the deal the financial angle was unanswered.

The Wall Street Journal on the other hand forecast the deal around $ 500,000. In comparison to the projectile trajectory predicted in 2006 at $200 Mn, the deal was considered as peanuts. In its cover page article Business Week projected the ailing Diggs as the Tech stocks plummeting, in 2006.

Digg founded in 2004 lets users submit links and either "upvote" or "downvote" other submissions. The site quickly amassed a strong following and grew so popular that some sites crashed from the traffic firehose.

At one point, it was largely speculated that Google would buy Diggs, however the rumours subsided eventually when not nothing real took shape. Diggs had issues with users and they started complaining about a litany of frustrations, including that certain submitters were gaming the voting system and that the commenting sections had devolved. However subsequent trouble shooting by Digg, did not alter the image of the ailing techie.

On the other hand Betaworks, owns online services including popular link-shortener Bit.ly and analytics platform Chartbeat. On its takeover of Digg, the company wrote on its blogpost, "We are turning Digg back into a startup. Low budget, small team, fast cycles." That means the Digg crew will be out and Betawork will take over. Clever strategy planned by the co-founder of Digg Rose, saw the crew take up position at Google for a lucrative sum.

Overall, the sad ending to the Digg story is a lesson to be learnt for all startups. Nothing is permanent and little holes when plugged early save the ship from sinking. (With inputs from internet- AW AarKay)