Slashdot may be for sale soon

One of the grandfathers of social news may be on the selling block as Geeknet announced today that they were evaluating “strategic alternatives” for their online media business that includes Slashdot, SourceForge, and Freecode. They may be for sale soon. Then again, Geeknet may decide to invest more into them.

It’s one way or the other as the current model is not profitable. The company showed a net loss of $2.1 million in the first quarter of 2012 despite having nearly 50 million visitors per month to the sites.

“After much discussion, our management team and Board of Directors have decided to begin a formal review of our media business to realize the full potential of these valuable assets and maximize shareholder value,” said Geeknet CEO Ken Langone.

Their eCommerce sites are led by ThinkGeek which is reportedly doing well. The site specializes in offbeat geek gear, much of which is unique to the site. It has a tremendous following and acts as a “badge of geekness” for its customers.

Slashdot, which was the predecessor to social news sites Digg and Reddit, has been a venue for tech news and discussions for nearly a decade.