GigaOm has the details on Six Apart acquiring RSS feed reader Rojo.com, as well some views on the RSS reader market. This is just a hunch but I think we're going to see lots of these kind of deals in the coming months as struggling/weak/under-financed Web 2.0 start-ups scramble into the arms of thriving/strong/well-financed Web 2.0 players. The Six Apart-Rojo deal (and the Tucows purchase of Kiko on eBay, or FeedBurner's acquisition of Blogbeat) are perhaps signs that the funding frenzy (FF) could be losing some of its steam as a growing number of start-ups run out of money and have nowhere to go. This Web 2.0 "consolidation" could be sold as a win-win scenario. The stronger players acquire cool technology at low prices, which could make them more viable and sustainable entities. Meanwhile, the weaker players find a way for their technology to live on, a place for some of their employees to keep working, and maybe some cash and/or shares for investors. These deals should be seen as a healthy development because it suggests investors aren't willing to pour good money after bad to sustain companies that would be better off gone. Maybe there's a job out there for a Web 2.0 middleman. Perhaps TechCrunch could morph itself into a wheeler-dealer? Update: Kevin Burton, who co-founded Rojo, has some personal views on Rojo as well as a re-cap of other blogosphere thoughts.

Rick Segal's post about hiring a freelance programmer to fix a Windows Live Messenger problem got me thinking about my own high-tech needs. Frankly, I need someone to come to my house and wire everything up. I need my stereo, laptop, desktop, television and telephone connected so they work together over the Internet and/or a LAN/WAN rather than acting as silos. Could I do it myself? Perhaps but it would take too much time and I'd probably make a few frustrating mistakes along the way. Any ideas?

It turns out the mystery eBay buyer for Kiko was Tucows Inc. and my friend, Elliot Noss. Noss explains the Toronto-based company's rational in a lengthy post. Essentially, it boils down to Tucows' need for a calendar application within its e-mail system, and buying Kiko for $258,100 on eBay provided Tucows with good technology much faster than developing it internally. "We all believe that a calendar is a very important function in the messaging suite for small businesses," Noss said. "Given that people don't want to maintain separate services for personal and business use, and because the line between personal and business services is getting blurrier, we felt this functionality was a big hole for us." For people unfamilar with Tucows, it provides more than 6,000 ISPs, hosting companies and service providers with wholesale tools such as blogging publishers (Blogware), software, e-mail and domain name registration. The company also operates a software download site with more than 40,000 titles.
Update: For more check, out Mathew Ingram and Don Dodge. TechCrunch has done a podcast with Noss about the Kiko deal.