Digg sold to Betaworks, reportedly for $500,000

Betaworks has confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that a deal to buy social news aggregator Digg closed today. The price Betaworks paid for Digg, say the WSJ, is just $500,000 — far, far lower than previously reported offers from Google in 2006 which were estimated at $200 million (though Kevin Rose himself put the number at $80 million). Founded by Kevin Rose in 2004, Digg underwent a hugely unpopular redesign in August of 2010, which is credited in part with its decrease in popularity. Digg is estimated to draw between 4.5 and 7 million unique visitors each month. Rose resigned from his role in the company in March of 2011.

While the deal itself is confirmed, the purchase price so far, is not. While the purchase covers the website, technology, and brand, none of Digg’s remaining employees are part of the deal. Many of Digg’s engineering team has already departed however, leaving this past May to work for The Washington Post’s SocialCode. The Wall Street Journal also reports that Betaworks intends to fold Digg into its News.me property.

Update: The current CEO of Digg, Matt Williams, has told All Things D that the “over all consideration is significantly higher” than the $500k reported by the Wall Street Journal, and that it comes in the form of both cash and equity. We have yet to independently verify the final price ourselves, and will update as we learn more.