Is TechCrunch really for sale?

Here’s the rumor roundup up on prominent startup blog TechCrunch and founder-editor Mike Arrington’s recent moves: In May, after five years in the Valley, Arrington relocated to the Seattle area, where he has family. He jokes about being a Seattle misfit.

Industry watchers looking for a money angle instantly concluded that Arrington plans to sell TechCrunch. He moved, say the wags, because Washington has no personal income tax.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":192123,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,entrepreneur,social,","session":"C"}']

Beyond the potential for a payday, Seattle reporter John Cook blogged that “Arrington hinted that he was burned out and ready to sell the online publishing empire that he created five years ago this month.” Cook is a former newspaper reporter, so he’s trained not to make stuff up.

Business Insider reporter Nicholas Carlson cranked that up into a headline, and added a photo that makes Mike look world-weary.

I’ve asked Arrington for a quote on whether he’s seriously planning to sell. No response yet. (Contrary to what you might expect, there’s not much blogger-hate between our sites. Except when they scoop us.)

My guess is that the more Arrington looks into a sale, the more he’ll realize how much he likes being a Silicon Valley kingmaker. In theory, he could start another company and succeed. In practice, that doesn’t usually happen. It ends with the former founder puttering at a VC firm. Congrats!

The most successful tech legends are those who stuck with their early successes — Gates, Ellison, Sergey and Larry, Steve Jobs (if you don’t count his decade or so of exile), and now Mark Zuckerberg. Mike Arrington’s big success came later in life, but it would be stupid to let go just yet. Arrington doesn’t need an exit, he needs a vacation.