Let's hope it really is just a horrid rumour - like most people here, bit is the first place I go for the tech news that interests me and the sociability of the forums. If it isn't rumour (and I'm sure that it is), how much do you think it would cost for a user buyout?
The cost of hosting would be the biggest headache, and I'm not sure the forum would survive such a move much past a year tbh.
It was indicated that a new server was being installed to deal with the load, so that may have gone online.