Brief news story on FanLib's closure

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

Los Angeles-based FanLib.com, an online site focused on "fan fiction"--fan created stories based on popular characters and movies--has shut down. According to a notice on FanLib's web site, the site will shut down on Monday, August 4th. No reason for the shutdown was given. Fanlib was backed by $3M in venture capital by H.I.G. Capital. paidContent.org's Rafat Ali speculated in a story earlier today that a deal for Disney to purchase the site had fallen through; paidContent had reported a possible deal for the firm by Disney in June.

From SoCalTech. Also: story at paidcontent.org.

Comments

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

I find it odd that Rafat Ali of paidcontent.org has been the only source for the "Disney will buy/is buying FanLib." There has never been confirmation from anyone else; every news article linked back to him.

However, his claim that "Disney will be completely retooling FanLib with a focus on its own properties, instead of fan fiction and other networks' TV shows and movies" is certainly believable. As soon as the Disney rumor first appeared, many FanLib members theorized that would be the outcome. It just makes sense that Disney would want the "crowd writing" software and nothing else.

The Mimbo Brothers' complete silence suggests whatever is going on is not something they want to share.

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

P.S. Rafat Ali also said the Disney deal might be false, or failed. That was just a week ago, around July 30th. I can't get paidcontent.org to load at the moment.