TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on

high tech High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest tec ...

and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $25 million. Following the 2015 acquisition of AOL and Yahoo by

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

, the site was owned by Verizon Media from 2015 through 2021. In 2021 Verizon sold its media assets, including AOL, Yahoo, and TechCrunch, to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, and Apollo integrated them into a new entity called

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

. In addition to its news reporting, TechCrunch is also known for its Disrupt conference, an annual technology event hosted in several cities across United States, Europe, and China.

History

TechCrunch was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $25 million. As of 2013, TechCrunch was available in English, Chinese (managed by Chinese tech news company, TechNode), and Japanese. TechCrunch France was folded into the main TechCrunch.com site in October 2012. Boudless (formerly Verizon Media Japan), the Japanese subsidiary of the TechCrunch's parent company, closed TechCrunch Japan in May 2022 according to its "global strategy". Vitalik Buterin TechCrunch London 2015

Following the acquisition of AOL and Yahoo by

, TechCrunch was owned by Verizon Media from 2015 through 2021. In August 2020, COO of TechCrunch, Ned Desmond, stepped down after 8 years in the company. He announced that he would join

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

firm,

SOSV SOSV is a venture capital firm that provides pre-seed, seed, venture and growth stage funding to startups in the technology sector. The company conducts seed accelerator programs in Asia and the United States of America. SOSV was founded in 199 ...

in December 2020 as senior operating partner. His former role at TechCrunch was replaced by Matthew Panzarino, former

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

, and Joey Hinson, director of business operations. In 2021 Verizon sold its media assets, including AOL, Yahoo, and TechCrunch, to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, and Apollo integrated them into a new entity called

Events

TechCrunch Disrupt

TechCrunch hosts an annual tech conference, TechCrunch Disrupt, in several cities in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. In 2014, TechCrunch Disrupt was featured in an arc of the HBO series ''

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Count ...

''. The characters' startup "Pied Piper" participates on a startup battle at TechCrunch Disrupt.

Startup Battlefield

Startup Battlefield is a startup competition. Monetary awards are presented at the TechCrunch Disrupt conferences. Notable startups that have been involved in the competition include

DropBox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox was founded in 2 ...

Intuit Mint Mint, also known as Intuit Mint (styled in its logo as intuit mint with dotted 't' characters in "intuit" and undotted 'i' characters) and formerly known as Mint.com, is a personal financial management website and mobile app for the US and Canad ...

Yammer Yammer () is an enterprise social networking service that is part of the Microsoft 365 family of products. It is used mainly for private communication within organizations but is also used for networks spanning various organizations. Access to a ...

, and CrateDB.

Former features

Crunchbase

From 2007 to 2015, TechCrunch operated Crunchbase, a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikip ...

and

online encyclopedia An online encyclopedia, also called an Internet encyclopedia, or a digital encyclopedia, is an encyclopedia accessible through the internet. Examples include Wikipedia and ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Digitization of old content In January 19 ...

of information on startups, key people, funds, funding rounds, and events. In 2015, Crunchbase spun out of TechCrunch to become a private entity, and is no longer a part of TechCrunch.

Crunchies

From 2007 to 2017, TechCrunch sponsored the annual Crunchies award ceremony to award startups, internet and technology innovations. At the first award ceremony in 2007,

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

won the award for best startup. Due to controversy surrounding the awards' hosts, TechCrunch announced in 2017 that it would end the Crunchies.

Controversies

The company was criticized for allowing developers to present the Titstare application, created by participants in a hackathon at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013. The application allows users to "stare at tits". In 2011, the site's editors and writers were criticized for possible ethics violations. These included claims that Arrington's investments in certain firms which the site had covered created a conflict of interest. The controversy that ensued eventually led to Arrington's departure, and other writers, including Paul Carr and Sarah Lacy, followed suit.

References

External links

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TechCrunch Events
* * {{Yahoo, Inc. Yahoo! Online publishing companies of the United States Internet properties established in 2005 Technology blogs Technology conferences American technology news websites Webby Award winners Web-related conferences 2005 establishments in the United States 2010 mergers and acquisitions