For a marketing and ads company, any script that's embedded on multiple websites is an attractive target for acquisition. There's nothing terribly special abou

For a marketing and ads company, any script that's embedded on multiple websites is an attractive target for acquisition. There's nothing terribly special about Disqus in this regard: they just have a decent install base. Some lip service fluff about AI/ML mining the comments for sentiment, likely to give the impression for ad sellers that they can target specific demographics, but this is something they can fake -- grouping user cohorts solely by the overlap of sites they visit is an adequate proxy. It does, however, show that Disqus' business model was the usual fantasy: burn cash to acquire users, coast by waiting for an acqui-hire until you're desperate, then introduce ads, hemorrhage users, then firesale cash out. This is a tried-and-true strategy for many web properties, from image hosts to chat services, but it truly doesn't make sense here, because you'd figure that their subscription plans should've been priced high enough to pay the bills. They badly misjudged their market.