Six Apart Sells LiveJournal Blog Network to Russia's SUP

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 3, 2007 - 9:30am.

San Francisco - Six Apart, a provider of blogging software and services and operator of the LiveJournal network of blogs, has announced a sale of LiveJournal to Russian media firm SUP. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The free LiveJournal service, which was acquired by Six Apart in 2005, counts 14.3 million blog accounts, with writers posting over 150,000 new posts daily and attracting around 20 million unique visitors per month.

Six Apart licensed SUP in 2006 to operate LiveJournal in Russia, which has become second only to the U.S. in number of accounts.

"We have been impressed by the expertise and enthusiasm that SUP has brought to LiveJournal in Russia," said Six Apart chairman and CEO Chris Alden.

"They've introduced new features, nearly doubled the number of users, invested in key product enhancements, and have done justice to one of the most innovative online social networks in the world."

SUP will form a new company based in San Francisco, LiveJournal Inc., to manage the service.

Six Apart will continue to develop its Moveable Type blogging software, as well its TypePad blog hosting service and Vox service for novice bloggers.