If you don’t read the TechCrunch blog, this post will not mean much to you. TechCrunch is the single best source of technology news that I know of – especially is you want to keep up on new Web companies and hot start-ups. Seriously, if you are not familiar with Michael Arrington, and his blog, just go on with your day.

If you are still with me, let’s talk about TechCrunch selling to AOL. I have to admit, I am a bit shocked to see this happen. I am surprised that he would sell his company at all, and really surprised he sold it to AOL. I am not optimistic that we will ever hear the true motivation behind this sale, so just to speculate, I have a few questions that I would love to have the answers to…

Did he do it for the money? Putting myself in his shoes, I have to admit that $30million is a lot of money. Regardless of the cash flow he was making in advertising dollars or the profits from his various shows, getting a one-time cashier check for that kind of dough is compelling. I could see how he might look at that opportunity as a once in a lifetime way to cash out and never have to worry about money again. If he came out and admitted that he was selling out for the money and it was too good to pass up, even though he did not like the buyer, I would have to give him props for building a valuable property and exiting. I am betting that this was the main reason for the sale.

Did he do it for the backing of a bigger company? Was his motivation to line up a much larger inventory of resources that he could tap to grow his brand and empire? If he believes that AOL will survive its total makeover (still in doubt) then this is a reasonable move to make. The only issue I have is that there are much better companies he could have sold to in order to gather more resources. He could have gone with an old media company, or one of the technology giants. Shoot, it would have even made more sense to sell to Yahoo! I just find it hard to believe that this was a big reason to sell.

Did he do it because he believes AOL will succeed in their turn around? It is possible that Arrington is so in the know and visionary that he sees a future where AOL will once again be a market leader and he wanted to be part of this. This is a stretch for me because AOL has been slipping steadily south in revenues for years. They may be able to do a turn around, but there is lots of risk there and I cannot believe that Arrington would bet all the work he has done on AOL’s future. Either he has some kind of separation agreement that allows him to jettison from AOL if things do not work out, or we are back to question one – he did it for the money and does not care whether they make it or not.

Does it really matter why he did it? This might be the most important question. Arrington built a valuable and meaningful company from scratch in a very short amount of time. He has been a very important and influential voice in the tech industry for the last few years. He has handled himself ethically in the public eye, and has been a great example of a world-class blogger. In addition, he has been a tremendous friend to technology startups and has gone to great lengths to help them out without abusing them or extorting funds from the help he gives them with exposure. The online banking company that I started (now Alkami Technology) was chosen for the Techcrunch 50 a couple of years ago so we got to see first hand what he does for young companies. In view of these final thoughts, it really does not matter why he has chosen to sell Techcrunch. He deserves the winning lottery ticket he worked for and I am happy for him…

Scott Klososky
Scott@klososky.com