TechCrunch、美國在線短暫聯姻鬧劇收場

????當初科技博客TechCrunch創始人邁克爾?阿靈頓將網站出售給美國在線公司（AOL）時，業界就沒人指望這段“姻緣”能有個美滿的結局。果不其然，恰好在一年之后，這筆當時震撼業界的交易就觸礁了。

????阿靈頓宣布，他打算推出一個名為Crunchfund的風投基金，它價值2,000萬美元。《紐約時報》（New York Times）發表評論稱，這是一個“荒唐可笑的越界行為”。阿靈頓同時運行著最舉足輕重的創業新聞網站和一只以初創企業為投資對象的基金，這給整個業界敲響了警鐘。

????盡管美國在線公司CEO蒂姆?阿姆斯特朗批準了這項安排（他稱TechCrunch是一個具有“不同標準”的網站），但該公司評論部主管阿里安娜?赫芬頓卻并不買賬，她說阿靈頓并不是美國在線公司評論部的一員。她建議，如果他想繼續寫的話，他可以做一位無償寫作的博客。

????赫芬頓的挑戰引發了一個長達一周的鬧劇：阿靈頓最初試圖保住他作為TechCrunch主編的身份，隨后又提議從美國在線公司回購TechCrunch，但他最終以辭職收場。阿靈頓的離去導致TechCrunch網站一批最有名的作者紛紛出走，美國在線公司贏得了一場代價慘痛的勝利。——史黛西?考莉

L'affair Arrington

????When TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington shocked the industry by selling his site to AOL, no one expected the matchup to end well. Exactly one year later, it imploded.

????In a move that the New York Times called "almost comically over the line," Arrington announced plans to launch a $20 million venture capital fund called Crunchfund. The idea of Arrington running both the most influential news site covering startups and a fund investing in those same startups set off alarm bells.

????While AOL CEO Tim Armstrong approved the arrangement (he called TechCrunch a site with "different standards"), AOL editorial head Arianna Huffington kiboshed it, proclaiming that Arrington was off AOL's editorial payroll. If he wanted to keep writing, he could do so as an unpaid blogger, she suggested.

????Huffington's gauntlet throw sparked a weeklong soap opera as Arrington first tried to preserve his TechCrunch editorship, then offered to buy TechCrunch back from AOL, and finally resigned. His departure sparked an exodus of TechCrunch's best-known writers, leaving AOL with a Pyrrhic victory.-- Stacy Cowley