Six Apart

2025-10-12T17:34:27Z

2A00:23C5:FE1C:3701:C95:250F:4829:389: tense

{{Short description|Software company}}
{{redirect|6A}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}
{{Update|date=June 2023}}
}}

{{Infobox company
| name = Six Apart, Ltd.
| native_name = シックス・アパート株式会社
| native_name_lang = ja
| romanized_name = Shikkusu Apāto kabushiki gaisha
| logo = Sixapart logo.svg
| logo_size = 200px
| type = [[Privately held company|Private]] [[kabushiki gaisha|KK]]
| predecessor = "Old" ([[San Francisco]], [[California]]-based) Six Apart Ltd. (2001–2011)
| foundation = {{plainlist|
*{{start date and age|2001|9}} in San Francisco, California, [[United States|U.S.]] (original)
*{{start date and age|2011|1}} in [[Tokyo]], [[Japan]] (current incarnation)}}
| founders = [[Benjamin Trott]]<br>[[Mena Grabowski Trott]]
| location = Tokyo, Japan
| key_people = [[Nobuhiro Seki]], CEO
| industry = [[Software & Programming]]
| products = [[Movable Type]]<br />Zenback<br />[[TypePad]]
| owner = [[Employee stock ownership|Employee owned]] (2016–present)
| parent = Infocom ([[Teijin]]) (2011–2016)
| operating profit =
| homepage = [http://www.sixapart.com/ www.sixapart.com]<br />[http://www.sixapart.jp/ www.sixapart.jp]
}}

'''Six Apart Ltd.''', sometimes abbreviated '''6A''', is a software company known for creating the [[Movable Type]] [[blogware]], [[TypePad]] [[blog hosting service]], and [[Vox (blogging platform)|Vox]] (the blogging platform). The company also is the former owner of [[LiveJournal]]. Six Apart is headquartered in Tokyo. The name is a reference to the six-day age difference between its formerly married co-founders, [[Benjamin Trott|Ben]] and [[Mena Grabowski Trott|Mena Trott]].<ref name="SixAppart-History" />

==History==
The company was founded in September 2001 after Ben, during a period of unemployment, wrote what became [[Movable Type]] to allow Mena to easily produce her weblog. When version 1.0 was put on the web, it was downloaded over 100 times in the first hour.<ref name="SixAppart-History">{{cite web | url=http://sixapart.com/about/history | title=Six Apart - History | publisher=Six Apart, Ltd | access-date=2006-09-08 | last=Trott | first=Mena G | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822150834/http://www.sixapart.com/about/history | archive-date=2006-08-22}}</ref>

===2003–2006===
In 2003, Six Apart received initial [[venture capital]] funding from a group led by [[Joi Ito]] and his Neoteny Co., which allowed the company to hire additional employees, acquire a French weblog publishing company, and unveil plans for what was to become its hosted weblog publishing system, TypePad. In 2004, Six Apart completed a second round of funding with [[August Capital]], which allowed it to make acquisitions of other companies. In January 2005, Six Apart purchased Danga Interactive, parent company of [[LiveJournal]], from owner [[Brad Fitzpatrick]], who was named Six Apart's chief architect. In March 2006, Six Apart announced the acquisition of the SplashBlog camera phone blogging service. June 2006 saw the release of their new [[Web 2.0]] blogging platform, [[Vox (blogging platform)|Vox]].

Its [[CEO]] was [[Chris Alden]]. Prominent weblogger [[Anil Dash]] joined the company in 2003, as did former head of Wired Digital Andrew Anker. Six Apart's board of directors consisted of Barak Berkowitz, Mena Trott, [[David Marquardt]], [[David Hornik]], [[Reid Hoffman]], and Jun Makihara.

On September 6, 2006, Six Apart bought Rojo.com. President Chris Alden became executive vice president of Six Apart and general manager of [[Movable Type]]. [[Chief technical officer|CTO]] Aaron Emigh became executive vice president and general manager of core technologies.<ref name="SixApart-Rojo">{{cite web
| url = http://www.sixapart.com/about/press/2006/09/six_apart_acqui_1.html
| title = Six Apart Acquires Rojo Networks
| publisher = Six Apart, Ltd
| date = 2006-09-06
| access-date = 2006-09-08
}}</ref>
{{wikinews|Six Apart Acquire Rojo}}

===2007===
On September 15, 2007, chairman and chief executive Barak Berkowitz stepped aside and was replaced by Chris Alden, who had run the company's professional software unit.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=allBreakingNews&storyID=2007-09-14T183137Z_01_N14210604_RTRIDST_0_BLOGGING-CEO.XML |title=Executive shuffle at blog software maker Six Apart - Reuters, 14 September 2007 |date=2007-09-14 |access-date=2014-07-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009142143/http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=allBreakingNews&storyID=2007-09-14T183137Z_01_N14210604_RTRIDST_0_BLOGGING-CEO.XML |archive-date=October 9, 2007 }}</ref>

On December 2, 2007, Six Apart announced it was selling LiveJournal to [[SUP Fabrik]], a Russian [[Mass media|media]] company that had licensed the LiveJournal brand and software for use in Russia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.livejournal.com/104520.html |title=news: LiveJournal & SUP |publisher=News.livejournal.com |date=2007-12-03 |access-date=2014-07-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091222225728/http://news.livejournal.com/104520.html |archive-date=2009-12-22 }}</ref>

===2008===
On April 21, 2008, Six Apart said it had acquired Apperceptive, a New York social media agency, as part of its new strategy. It declined to disclose financial terms of the deal. It also partnered with advertising agency Adify. Just as in an advertising network, bloggers were able to sign up and participate in advertising campaigns managed by Six Apart.<ref>{{cite web|last=Lee |first=Ellen |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=25849 |title=Six Apart: Will blog for food |publisher=Sfgate.com |access-date=2014-07-29}}</ref>

On December 1, 2008, Six Apart announced the acquisition of micro blogging website [[Pownce]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sixapart.com/blog/2008/12/welcome-pownce-team.html |title=Blog - Welcome Pownce team! |publisher=Six Apart |date=2008-12-01 |access-date=2014-07-29}}</ref> The Pownce website was shut down on December 15. The key developers of Pownce ([[Leah Culver]] and Mike Malone) stayed on at Six Apart through early 2010,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/02/12/pownce-leah-culver/ |title=Pownce Founder Leah Culver Leaves Six Apart |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2010-02-12 |access-date=2014-07-29}}</ref> with Pownce technology being integrated into [[TypePad]] and TypePad Conversations.

===2010===
On September 2, 2010 Six Apart announced that they would be shutting down their blogging/social networking site [[Vox (blogging platform)|Vox]] with a final termination date set for September 30, 2010.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://closing.vox.com |title=Vox is closing on September 30, 2010 |website=Vox |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100902214148/http://closing.vox.com/ |archive-date=September 2, 2010 }}</ref>

Beginning from September 15, 2010 Vox users would not be able to post new blog posts.

On September 22, Six Apart announced its intention to join forces with [[VideoEgg]] to create a modern media company called [[SAY Media]].

===2011===

On January 21, 2011, [[SAY Media]] announced that it was selling the Six Apart brand and the worldwide Movable Type business to Infocom, a Japanese information technology company.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sixapart.com/blog/2011/01/sixapart-japan-to-be-acquired.html|title=Six Apart Japan to be acquired by Infocom and assume responsibility for Movable Type and Six Apart brand}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.saymedia.com/2011/01/movable-type-finds-new-home-at-infocom.html|title=Movable Type Finds a New Home at Infocom|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119163827/http://blog.saymedia.com/2011/01/movable-type-finds-new-home-at-infocom.html|archive-date=2012-01-19}}</ref> As a result of this transaction, the headquarters of Six Apart is now Tokyo, Japan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sixapart.com/about/contact/|title=Six Apart Contact Us page}}</ref>

[[Nobuhiro Seki]], who was general manager of Six Apart, K.K. prior to this announcement, became president and CEO of Six Apart.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sixapart.com/about/management/|title=Six Apart Management page}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*{{Official website|http://www.sixapart.com/ }}

[[Category:Software companies of Japan]]
[[Category:2001 establishments in California]]
[[Category:Software companies established in 2001]]
[[Category:Livejournal]]
[[Category:Software companies based in Tokyo]]
[[Category:Blog software]]
[[Category:Employee-owned companies]]
[[Category:Internet technology companies of Japan]]

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