Fresh off the announcement [0] by its CEO that Entrepreneur Media is no longer for sale, Entrepreneur.com, the company’s flagship Web site, has launched Entrepreneur Connect, a social network for small businesses.

The site purports to be a “business-to-business marketplace designed specifically for entrepreneurs.” Sprint has signed on to be the launch sponsor.

Entrepreneur’s social network joins a growing list of rival magazines launching business-focused Web communities.

Just last week, Wired magazine announced the launch of Wired Biz, a niche social networking site for entrepreneurs and business owners. The site, Wired says, gives small business owners a platform for information sharing and "encourages collaborative problem solving."

In March, BusinessWeek partnered [0] with LinkedIn to create a social network. In February, Fast Company announced the launch [0] of a social networking platform it said was the first to blend journalism with online community.

The Irvine, California-based publisher of Entrepreneur magazine went on the block this spring with an asking price of $200 million. Entrepreneur and Austin Ventures were in a due diligence phase and the deal was set to be finalized in mid- to late July, according to sources close to the deal. The state of the credit market, however, proved to be too severe a roadblock [0] for the sale to go through.

“There are several reasons for this,” CEO Peter Shea wrote in a memo obtained by FOLIO:. “One being that I decided that I am not ready to retire, another reason being that the debt market has made it a very difficult market for [buyout] funds to raise debt financing at a reasonable multiple and percentage rate.”