Jelsoft's future

[Reeve of Shinra]

Its not an assumption - if IB wants this information from Jelsoft, they can get it since they now own Jelsoft. No one is saying that this information has been handed over yet but if this information should be turned over - we would like to know when, where, and how our information will be used. If that information will never be handed over or used by IB, then simply say that and back it up in the license agreement.

All the statements thus far were about sharing our info with Third Party's... IB is NOT a third party.

[Itworx4me]

I have to ask the question as to why they thought they needed to look for outside source of money. Just doing some simple math shows that Jelsoft made a bundle of money. I think John wanted out of the company and the only way they could buy him out was to sell the company. just my thoughts.

[Jake Bunce]

I had my concerns at first, but I am not worried.

There are many examples of acquisitions among big businesses that have gone very well. One recent example that most internet users can identify with is the acquisition of YouTube by Google. YouTube has only improved in the last 9 months since the acquisition... their basic service has remained the same with the addition of several new features and more exposure as a result of the acquisition (e.g. YouTube is now searchable on video.google.com). YouTube is becoming huge on the internet and in the media, and there is no doubt that Google has helped in that regard.

I don't buy into the arguments that an acquisition must necessarily screw the customers. Jelsoft is an investment. It is in the best interest of IB to grow that investment. IB is a major vBulletin customer just like all of you. They share the same passions and concerns over the future of vBulletin. They genuinely want to see vBulletin be successful, and this acquisition will help them to take a more active role in the success of vBulletin in order to protect their investment.

I have faith that this acquisition will be good for Jelsoft. I have worked with James a long time. He takes care of his employees and customers and has our welfare in mind. He genuinely believes that this acquisition is a good thing for the company and for the customers, and I trust that. He has addressed all of our concerns and has done his best to ensure that this acquisition is beneficial for all parties involved.

Nothing is changing. James is still the CEO. Kier is still the lead developer. All current employees are staying except for John who left the company to pursue other interests, but John hasn't been involved for quite some time. The only difference is that we now have a parent company that is committing money and resources to help us in our goals.

I have to ask the question as to why they thought they needed to look for outside source of money. Just doing some simple math shows that Jelsoft made a bundle of money. I think John wanted out of the company and the only way they could buy him out was to sell the company. just my thoughts.

Money isn't the only resource that IB brings to the table.

[smackLAN]

Nice post Jake...thanks. Jelsoft has been very good to many of us just as we have been good for them...I look forward to seeing that continue for many years to come

[Mr_Bob]

I've waited some time to reply to this thread, mainly so I could see as much information from Jelsoft as I could.

Now, when I first read about IB acquiring Jelsoft, I was rather shocked. The first thing that run through my head was "Great, time to find another product." However, after reading the responses from Jelsoft, I am put more at ease. If the product will improve, what is there to frown upon? Honestly, think about it for just a moment. IB will be providing more funding and resources to Jelsoft. These resources will expedite development time and create a more dynamic/feature rich end product.

As long as I can still receive a brilliant product *now product family*, along with the outstanding support I have received over the years, I am content.

[Razasharp]

I think it has to be said that much of the concerns expressed are because so many of us care about vB.

We use it because we rate it as number one, we recommend it because we think it's the best - so yes, we are loyal customers and with that comes a sense of protectiveness, worry, concern.

Yes there are worst case scenerios and of course that's what we don't want to see. So I like most, hope that things go well and IB's involvement has a positive effect.

I think putting up the blog on vb.com was a great move to remind people things are moving forward, but I do think we need to hear more. We need to hear how great IB is going to make vB.

And soonish?

[MRGTB]

Something as just crossed my mind, how are vB.org going to stand in all this now. I mean will it be in IB's best interest to have ties to that site if they plan to start putting money into official paid add-ons. When people at vB.org might be releasing similar hacks for free.

Can you see them wanting to sever ties and move away from being affiliated with that site now more than ever before.

I'm just wonder what the staff here think about this and has this been mentioned by IB already?

[Floris]

Something as just crossed my mind, how are vB.org going to stand in all this now. I mean will it be in IB's best interest to have ties to that site if they plan to start putting money into official paid add-ons. When people at vB.org might be releasing similar hacks for free.

Can you see them wanting to sever ties and move away from being affiliated with that site now move than ever before.

I'm just wonder what the staff here think about this and has this been mentioned by IB already?

It would be the same situation as it is now for Jelsoft releasing products - it does not matter if it is Jelsoft or IB.

[MRGTB]

OK, fair enough. I just wondered. Because I was curious if they might have had a totally different attitude towards that site, seeing as there not really an offical vB site as such. But more looked upon as a sister site, but not in the offical sence of the word.

So would this site be moved to a new server they run and hosted from there, and if so would that leave vB.org to then have to pay for there own services. As from what I can gather both this and that site are currently on the same server. And I'm wondering if IB have any plans to move this site onto another server to maybe save money on server costs

[Floris]

OK, fair enough. I just wondered. Because I was curious if they might have had a totally different attitude towards that site, seeing as there not really an offical vB site as such. But more looked upon as a sister site, but not in the offical sence of the word.

So would this site be moved to a new server they run and hosted from there, and if so would that leave vB.org to then have to pay for there own services. As from what I can gather both this and that site are currently on the same server. And I'm wondering if IB have any plans to move this site onto another server to maybe save money on server costs

As James has said a few times, basically everything stays the same.

[MRGTB]

Yeah, but James might be referring to vBulletin.com, not vBulletin.org

[Reeve of Shinra]

vb.org will be just fine...

[MRGTB]

Thought you might be interested. Read Jasons (IPb Staff) commments in that thread.

http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=235954

Man this guys sure knows his stuff (so he thinks anyhow)

I'm not surprised. When I saw that they were exhibiting at that Internet tradeshow a while ago I thought that they try to shop the company around. It did happen faster than I thought though - I would have given them until the end of the year.

Seriously, after working 15 years in the software industry it was predictable. After all their customers were complaining for years that they still didn't have any addons and Jelsoft probably realized that they would have a hard time ever catching up through organic growth in that respect and the market evolving into integrated, community-oriented solutions (ie. the market for standalone messageboards will vanish over time imo) they decided to try selling the company. Probably hoping that it works out and they can take their software to the next level but more importantly make some $$ now while the company has still a leading position in their market segment.

To maximize the company value they applied a "classic" strategy:
1) Announce a few additional products to broaden the portfolio and with that raise the revenue potential on paper (higher revenue potential = higher company evaluation). Notice that they picked the two addons which they could release with minimal efforts and timeframe. They didn't announce the CMS eveyone wanted but "project tools" and a blog. The project tools are just an enhancement of their internal bug tracker and the blog is probably one of the addons with the least development time. They went for the quick fix instead of what the customers wanted or would have made strategic sense.
2) They show up on a large tradeshow. Jelsoft, which I have never seen doing any real marketing, decides to spend thousands of £££ on a tradeshow of all possible marketing activities. For a company the size of Jelsoft an online advertising campaign would have been much more effective for lead generation than this tradeshow. I don't have the exhibition details of this show but just based on experience with many tradeshows I would guess it was at least £15-20k - and that is very conservative. Why doing it? If you want to get a high price for the company you need to look like a professional, big company even if you aren't. It's all a game.

As to the acquisition itself, you never know for sure but I think it's good for IPS. Internet Brands doesn't seem like a good fit - starting with a different culture (a software vendor and a online business are managed very differently). If I had to guess again, I would expect that in the beginning it will look "awesome"; they will probably hire several new people and announce a few more things, and everyone will be enthusiastic. But it won't last - I've never seen Jelsoft as visionary or having good product management skills, they were just lucky to be early in the right market and did a decent but conservative job of expanding the current product; they never took any risks or reinvested significantly to grow and take the company to the next level. They were happy with their status quo - never a good thing in the software industry. And just having more money won't change that. Internet Brands will start getting impatient and start meddling if they won't do it right from the bat. After a while Jelsoft will loose momentum...

This is just my opinion but if I had to bet on something, this would be it. Acquisitions don't work out very often (except for the former owners ) and Internet Brands just doesn't seem a good fit to me.

The difference in culture is the biggest obstacle to overcome.

I've had nearly 10 years experience with communities; both participating and in building the software and there isn't another market quite like it.

A big faceless corporation "swallowing" a popular home business isn't something that the current vB owner-base will accept easily.

A little research on Internet Brands shows that their current revenue is generated from selling user/visitor data and from online adverts. I think this is the biggest attractive for Internet Brands. They now have access to the trends and data for thousands on online communities which has a high value.

[0ptima]

Internet Brands aqquired my forum, BikeForums.net earlier this year. I did a lot of research on them before signing my site over, they are a great company, smart leardership and really understand what community means.

Ar you still involved with your forum that you sold? Are you now on the IB payroll? Is your forum now run by "their people"?

[Reeve of Shinra]

Thought you might be interested. Read Jasons (IPb Staff) commments in that thread.

http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=235954

Man this guys sure knows his stuff (so he thinks anyhow)

Most of those comments have already been voiced in this thread...

I've been pretty adamant about the subject myself, and obviously I'm not in a position to speak for anyone, but I highly doubt the development of the blogs was in any way related to the acquisition. Kier mentioned as much and whatever else happens, I trust the honesty and integrity of the jelsoft staff.

I also doubt that code will be added for IB to collect stats our the traffic of our forums but again I am concerned about how the information Jelsoft already has about us will be used by IB going forward.