It's not you. It's me. We can still be friends, right? That's how I translate Digg founder Kevin Rose's blog post announcement that Digg is dropping Battelle's Federated Media as its online-ad rep and signing up with Microsoft. Says Rose:

It's a deal similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year.

That no doubt means that Microsoft ponied up a big upfront guarantee to win Digg's business. That kind of offer is naturally hard for Battelle's startup to compete with. But it's hard to get dumped for someone richer. And softening the blow by continuing to toss some scraps of business Battelle's way? That just makes things worse. Break up like a man, Kevin. (Photo by dfarber)

Contact information for this author is not available.