If Michael Arrington is no longer at TechCrunch, what would stop him from continuing his personal blogging?

The answer is, there is nothing stopping him: https://twitter.com/#%21/arrington/status/114224473804242946 The real "Personal" Blog is here: http://www.UnCrunched.com/ At the end of the day, does it matter if he calls his blog a "Personal" Blog or not?  The impact would likely be the same, perhaps even financially when related to potential advertising revenue.

There may very well be contractual restrictions on Arrington's competitive blogging activities. Unless the merger agreement is made public, or one of the parties discloses the terms in media reports, we may never know for certain. Those agreements tend to be confidential, unless required to be disclosed by law (most commonly in filings). When a public company like acquires a large company, it's considered material and the merger agreement is filed along with its Exchange Act reports for the whole world to see. If the deal is small enough to be considered financially immaterial to the acquirer, as is often the case when a giant like AOL gobbles up a company for a relatively small amount like the reported $30 million, the agreement will remain confidential, and the terms disclosed by the acquirer can be vague (e.g., "AOL acquired for an undisclosed amount"). It's virtually certain that in connection with the sale of a business like TechCrunch, the sellers were required to agree not to compete with the business they sold for some period of time. Although California courts are famously hostile to non-competes, the one area in which they do regularly uphold these clauses is in connection with the sale of a business. That said, the devil is in the details, and these clauses are usually fiercely negotiated by lawyers on both sides: Exactly what is a competing business? How far does it extend geographically? For how long a period of time? And so on.This answer is for general informational purposes only and is ...

Nothing. Mike Arrington just started his own personal blog. Enter UnCrunched: http://www.uncrunched.com

This is just a wild guess: Usually the contractual restrictions in an acquisition are public only if the size is big enough, in this case the deal is almost irrelevant from a shareholder standpoint. That said I highly doubt there would be a clause between AOL-TC which specifically states that Mr. Arrington as an individual may not start his own blog (think Tumblr). The non-compete agreements generally forbid monetary gain, but not a freedom of expression of an individual. So the guess here is that Michael would perhaps start his own casual blog that initially broadcasts his own, personal views and begins to form a group of writers and monetize the blog after the non-compete time has expired (which is generally around 1-2 years). But with CrunchFund set up, Arrington brushing shoulders with celebrities and obtaining deal flow, I highly doubt he would start another "TechCrunch." It will be perceived as a source of "marketing" for his start-ups, something that will inevitably be frowned upon. Instead I think, he might as well have a good relationship with AOL/TechCrunch and get deal flow from the startups they cover. While officially maintaining a "hands-off" policy.

He's actually been writing a personal blog pretty much ever since he started Techcrunch: http://www.crunchnotes.com It hasn't been written on for a while.