Black Duck buys Ohloh from Geeknet

Terms were not disclosed and the transaction closed at the end of last month

The Ohloh directory aggregates data from over 250,000 sources, and Black Duck will begin rolling out enhancements to the site over the next two months.

This should be a good deal for Ohloh users because Black Duck has a working business model in code auditing and assurance services. For Geeknet, the sale emphasizes its role as a community and journalism site.

RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady said the deal "emphasizes the growing value of data." The deal should give companies that want to use open source more information on projects.

Black Duck CEO Tim Yeaton said, "“With this acquisition we'll provide the FOSS ecosystem and all developers using open source with a complete, trusted source of FOSS knowledge and insight, along with community and collaboration tools to engage with peers."

He added, in a note to ZDNet, "“Developers who depend on Ohloh will have a committed owner of the site, eager to deliver improvements and ready to engage with them. Longer term, developers can look forward to an additional, advanced set of tools that streamline FOSS code selection and consumption, with Ohloh as a key enabler.

The press packet also had kind words from Red Hat executive Paul Cormier.

It's easy to say it's all good here, but I wonder how developers feel about seeing their communities and resources becoming increasingly corporate? Geeknet is a journalism company, while Black Duck has a different product line. I have no problems with any of that but do you?