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Sep 5 2007 8:41AM EDT

R.I.P., Biz 2.0

There's a lot of second-guessing Time Inc. must be doing now that it's finally boarding up Business 2.0. Could we have foreseen things turning out this way when we forked over $68 million in 2001 to buy it? Should we have tried to reposition it dramatically after the dot-com crash? How much money could we have saved by folding this thing much earlier?

One question they don't have to ask themselves at least, is: Would Business 2.0 have fared any better under its original name, eCompany Now? That was just a stupid name. Not as bad as Ziff Davis' SmartBusiness for the New Economy, but close.

In the end, even Morningstar founder Joe Mansueto, who maintains a somewhat mystifying belief in the power of New Economy magazines -- he's the one who rescued Fast Company when Gruner + Jahr dissolved -- was only willing to pay about $5 million for Business 2.0's name and subscriber file, according to the New York Post. You might think Time Inc. would take whatever it could get, but then they also had to weigh the effects of shoring up a competitor to Fortune (which is absorbing much of Biz 2.0's staff).

Ann Moore must be so glad today that she didn't take over until CEO until 2002. A lot of mistakes have been made on her watch, but buying Business 2.0 wasn't one of them.

Earlier: Pre-eulogizing Business 2.0

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