2011《财富》最愚蠢商业事件大盘点（下）

TechCrunch、美国在线短暂联姻闹剧收场

    当初科技博客TechCrunch创始人迈克尔•阿灵顿将网站出售给美国在线公司（AOL）时，业界就没人指望这段“姻缘”能有个美满的结局。果不其然，恰好在一年之后，这笔当时震撼业界的交易就触礁了。

    阿灵顿宣布，他打算推出一个名为Crunchfund的风投基金，它价值2,000万美元。《纽约时报》（New York Times）发表评论称，这是一个“荒唐可笑的越界行为”。阿灵顿同时运行着最举足轻重的创业新闻网站和一只以初创企业为投资对象的基金，这给整个业界敲响了警钟。

    尽管美国在线公司CEO蒂姆•阿姆斯特朗批准了这项安排（他称TechCrunch是一个具有“不同标准”的网站），但该公司评论部主管阿里安娜•赫芬顿却并不买账，她说阿灵顿并不是美国在线公司评论部的一员。她建议，如果他想继续写的话，他可以做一位无偿写作的博客。

    赫芬顿的挑战引发了一个长达一周的闹剧：阿灵顿最初试图保住他作为TechCrunch主编的身份，随后又提议从美国在线公司回购TechCrunch，但他最终以辞职收场。阿灵顿的离去导致TechCrunch网站一批最有名的作者纷纷出走，美国在线公司赢得了一场代价惨痛的胜利。——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