TechCrunch is a leading news website focused on information technology companies, ranging in size from startups to established NASDAQ-100 firms. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005. On September 28, 2010, at its TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, AOL announced that it would acquire TechCrunch. The transaction was rumored to be between $25m and $40m. TechCrunch has a global reader base with the USA (42%), India (16%), Japan (4%), the United Kingdom (3%) and Canada (3%) as main countries according to the number of page impressions. In 2011, the site came under fire for possible ethics violations. These included claims that Arrington’s investments in certain firms which the site had covered created a conflict of interest. The controversy that ensued eventually led to Arrington’s departure, and other writers, including Paul Carr and Sarah Lacy, followed suit.