Digg to be acquired by The Washington Post?

News aggregating site Digg has seen better days. Digg was once one of the hottest up-and-coming Internet sites before a 2010 redesign led its users to revolt and resulted in the individual responsible for many of the changes being fired. As a result, the company was forced to lay off 37% of its employees within months and has never regained its footing. Given the sorry state of the company, it's not surprising that it's been the subject of many buyout rumors over the past few years.

The most recent rumor comes courtesy of The Next Web. According to the website, one of the journalism industry's big players, The Washington Post, is looking to buy Digg. The Next Web claims to have been informed by multiple sources that The Washington Post is looking to buy Digg in an effort to increase its "social prowess." When reached for comment by The Next Web, both Digg and The Washington Post declined to make a statement.

According to a story at TechCrunch, however, The Washington Post may not actually acquire Digg's assets. Instead, the company would acquire Digg's employees to develop its own news aggregating site, Trove. This would leave Digg's other property, including assets and patents, up for sale to other companies. When reached for comment by TechCrunch, The Washington Post again declined to make a statement.

Digg founder and former CEO Kevin Rose was recently hired by Google after leaving Digg last year. Google was once one of the rumored companies that attempted to buy Digg before the site's traffic fell off drastically following its redesign.