Jelsoft's future

[ManagerJosh]

I'm trying to decide whether this is a good or bad thing.....and I've yet to make up my mind.

[Immulsifier]

One thing I have noticed over time is that the price of a product nearly always changes after a takeover/merger like this.

[Razasharp]

More information about Internet Brands would have been nice. Who are they? What's their website address? Where are they based? What plans 'they' have etc etc

Also why is there no official discussion thread for this? That doesn't send out a good signal imo.

[simsim]

It's not price that I'm really concerned about. vBulletin already worths much more than what it offers; it's business politics that might undergo such acquisition deals leading to changes in favor of the business people rather than customers.

I won't talk much than what I've said!

[Ohiosweetheart]

I've no plans to the contrary

Best news I've heard yet today.

I'm trying to decide whether this is a good or bad thing.....and I've yet to make up my mind.

Same here.

One thing I'm almost betting on - the price is going to increase, sooner or later. Almost ALWAYS happens in an acquisition. And since the pricetag on vB hasn't gone up in quite a while, you can just about count on it.

[Razasharp]

It's not price that I'm really concerned about. vBulletin already worths much more than what it offers; it's business politics that might undergo such acquisition deals leading to changes in favor of the business people rather than customers.

I won't talk much than what I've said!

I have to say I agree.

Is it this company? http://www.internetbrands.com/ib/

If so I feel very uneasy about this. Obvously a lot of vB users are competition for them, they might try to hold back features for their own sites and only offer sub-standard solutions to the rest of us.

So far, don't feel good about this at all. Sorry.

[Fusion]

More information about Internet Brands would have been nice. Who are they? What's their website address? Where are they based? What plans 'they' have etc etc

Internet Brands' website

Also why is there no official discussion thread for this? That doesn't send out a good signal imo.

It could very well be that this is a piece of information the company doesn't feel warrants discussion among the customers.

[RedTyger]

Oops, I thought they just hadn't gotten around to creating a discussion thread yet. Oh well, this will last as long as it lasts.

I'm not judging one way or the other, it's not fair to yet. I'll just see what happens, people will vote with their feet to or from the software if it does/doesn't continue to provide what they need. After all, that's how vBulletin came to exist in the first place.

[Razasharp]

I agree, but am only saying how I feel right now. Hopefully my fears will be proved unfounded and I will remain a happy vB user.

Here's hoping anyway

I do stand by my comments about there not being an official discussion thread - this is probably the most important announcement they could make, and not having a discussion thread really doesn't instil confidence.

[InfoNirvana]

Hopefully it will spur development

Curious development.
I have followed vB closely for 5 years, likely more.
I find it very weird they really never progressed beyond a forum product in a meaningful way. Promising vaguely that a CMS/portal was coming but never delivering was surely a sign of problems.

I hope this brings a flood of good Jelsoft products. Of course the marketplace is quite full now.

[tokenyank]

vBulletin being the industry leader in commercial forum software, I doubt that the acquisition will effect the brand too much. Things like Weblogs and Winamp, as previously mentioned, were great products but they weren't the leaders so when the company changed hands, users fell by the way side.

What needs to happen is due care that what caused the Mambo/Joomla split from happening here. If the users still feel like they are getting a good deal and a great product, consumers will stay loyal. However, if they feel that they are being 'taken for a ride', they'll leave in droves.

vBulletin is the benchmark, I sincerely hope that the new owners do not take this for granted and become complacent. Push development, produce new and great product, the Jelsoft arm of Internetbrands will grow exponentially.

Fingers crossed!

[Fusion]

A thought occurred to me... With this sale, won't the offices slowly relocate to the US? What effect, if any, will that have on the normal running of said offices? Will we see a slow morphing of UK -> US staff? If that happens I fear threads such as this and other "free-speaking" ones might end up on the endangered species list.

[3dsoft]

Some acquisitions turn out good and some turn out to be a desaster. And not even the Ceo's of both companies know the future. It's funny, just last night I saw a documentary about 2 companies who joined forces in order to build the Vivendi Universal company in the year 2000. In the end they lost 1 Billion on a monthly basis and finally both Ceo's got kicked out.

In fact, it's always uncertain how 2 companies will work together. So we just wait and see.

[kuyenmotdivad]

So I am guessing this party at the bottom will be changing "Copyright ©2000 - 2007, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd." or will it stay the same?

I hope vBulletin does not go down hill since another company as purchased it.

[Fusion]

Is it this company? http://www.internetbrands.com/ib/

If so I feel very uneasy about this. Obvously a lot of vB users are competition for them, they might try to hold back features for their own sites and only offer sub-standard solutions to the rest of us.

So far, don't feel good about this at all. Sorry.

If it ever becomes evident that Jelsoft/IB runs a forum that is substantially different from the one they offer for sale, I'm pretty sure there will be an uproar among the customers.

Jelsoft has stated pretty much since day 1 that they run the stock version of the product.