Jelsoft's future
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Hehe, sorry if I laugh.
I have been thru several aquistitions in my working career. If you think there are going to be no changes then I think you need to open your eyes. Any Company that buys out another Company will ENFORCE some of their working practises on that Company. This will have a knockon effect on the consumer. That IS a fact.Comment
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Firstly, thank you all for your comments so far. I’m keen to answer as many questions as possible, and clarify any details of the deal or our vision for Jelsoft moving forward.
To touch on a couple of points that have been raised. Internet Brands is in the business of creating value. With Jelsoft, they are looking to work with us to improve every aspect of the company, helping us to scale up in terms of development, sales and marketing and customer service. After many weeks of discussions with their executive team, as well as a visit in person to their offices in Los Angeles, I am extremely confident that Internet Brands is very much in tune with the vision that we have for Jelsoft, and understands fully the dynamics of the market that we are serving. There is no intention of changing Jelsoft in a way that would impede on our core goal – to provide excellent, great value, community solutions.
From my perspective, it a very complimentary partnership - they have the scale and experience that can facilitate Jelsoft to grow and continue to provide solutions for our customers, and we have the expertise in this field that can only be gained by developing a product and being involved in this marketplace for seven years.
As a technical note about the structure of the deal – Jelsoft will continue to exist as a stand-alone company. All Jelsoft staff, including management, will remain the same, and the headquarters will continue to be in the UK. The ongoing development of products will continue as planned.
There have been a couple of points raised about the possible conflict of interest between IB’s existing communities and sites that may be run by our customers. I can assure you that there are no plans to restrict access to vBulletin for sites with topics that compete with other IB companies, or to add additional functionality to the IB communities that is not included in the product. Doing either of these would be anti-competitive, and is certainly not in keeping with the culture of Jelsoft or IB. In fact, it is more likely that custom code created by IB for their communities will also be included in vBulletin!
Onto the subject of product pricing. Since the first release of vBulletin 1.0 in 2000, we have never raised the price of vBulletin licenses. The key strategy moving forward is not to shift prices markedly upwards and make buying vBulletin an unattractive proposition, but rather to offer a broader range of products and services to better cater for all audiences. We are in business to serve our customers, and we will continue to do just that in order to remain competitive.
As a final point, I’m personally very excited to be working with IB. We have extremely ambitious plans for the future, and I’m confident that with the additional support and resources from Internet Brands, we will continue to be able to provide great, well supported products and services.
Just to reiterate my thanks for all your comments so far... please keep them coming. I will continue to participate in this thread over the coming days, and am keen to reassure everyone that this is a great thing for Jelsoft and our customers moving forwards.
Many thanks,
JamesJames LimmComment
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James,
Firstly I applaud you. I really hope that you and the Jelsoft employees are not tied into any "stay with us or your lose your stock" deal".
Secondly I hope you get the cash injection that you require. I always smile when I know that Jelsoft are only a few miles from where I live and I love the fact that a British Company leads the way in forum software.
That leads me to my next issue. Forum software is not the be all and end all. Social networking is where you should be. Show the masses. Let them praise you but give them something. I for one am becoming disheartenened.
Thanks for the reply, this is like deja vue for me!
Firstly, thank you all for your comments so far. I’m keen to answer as many questions as possible, and clarify any details of the deal or our vision for Jelsoft moving forward.
To touch on a couple of points that have been raised. Internet Brands is in the business of creating value. With Jelsoft, they are looking to work with us to improve every aspect of the company, helping us to scale up in terms of development, sales and marketing and customer service. After many weeks of discussions with their executive team, as well as a visit in person to their offices in Los Angeles, I am extremely confident that Internet Brands is very much in tune with the vision that we have for Jelsoft, and understands fully the dynamics of the market that we are serving. There is no intention of changing Jelsoft in a way that would impede on our core goal – to provide excellent, great value, community solutions.
From my perspective, it a very complimentary partnership - they have the scale and experience that can facilitate Jelsoft to grow and continue to provide solutions for our customers, and we have the expertise in this field that can only be gained by developing a product and being involved in this marketplace for seven years.
As a technical note about the structure of the deal – Jelsoft will continue to exist as a stand-alone company. All Jelsoft staff, including management, will remain the same, and the headquarters will continue to be in the UK. The ongoing development of products will continue as planned.
There have been a couple of points raised about the possible conflict of interest between IB’s existing communities and sites that may be run by our customers. I can assure you that there are no plans to restrict access to vBulletin for sites with topics that compete with other IB companies, or to add additional functionality to the IB communities that is not included in the product. Doing either of these would be anti-competitive, and is certainly not in keeping with the culture of Jelsoft or IB. In fact, it is more likely that custom code created by IB for their communities will also be included in vBulletin!
Onto the subject of product pricing. Since the first release of vBulletin 1.0 in 2000, we have never raised the price of vBulletin licenses. The key strategy moving forward is not to shift prices markedly upwards and make buying vBulletin an unattractive proposition, but rather to offer a broader range of products and services to better cater for all audiences. We are in business to serve our customers, and we will continue to do just that in order to remain competitive.
As a final point, I’m personally very excited to be working with IB. We have extremely ambition plans for the future, and I’m confident that with the additional support and resources from Internet Brands, we will continue to be able to provide great, well supported products and services.
Just to reiterate my thanks for all your comments so far... please keep them coming. I will continue to participate in this thread over the coming days, and am keen to reassure everyone that this is a great thing for Jelsoft and our customers moving forwards.
Many thanks,
JamesComment
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Jelsoft appears to have been a solid company with a solid reputation, why the decision to sell out to a third party rather than hire personal, or purchasing a company with, the expertise needed to take the company to the next level?
Can you share any other details related to the acquisition? Did IB come to you or did Jelsoft put itself on the block? If you decided that IB was not a complimentary fit, can you tell us what other companies were looking at Jelsoft?
thank youPlan, Do, Check, Act!Comment
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Hehe, sorry if I laugh.
I have been thru several aquistitions in my working career. If you think there are going to be no changes then I think you need to open your eyes. Any Company that buys out another Company will ENFORCE some of their working practises on that Company. This will have a knockon effect on the consumer. That IS a fact.Comment
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I was wondering. What happens if Jelsoft and IB break up, what happens to the code you add into vbulletin that is owned by IB? Wouldnt this cause a lot of trouble?
Also, is there any news on vbulletin 4.0? It has been talked about for ages and we havent heard about it for months and months. Will IB be funding it to speed up development? I fear that 4.0 is not evening being developed and no where near completion for months to come.
Also, has IB bought Jelsoft or putting capital in and gaining interest from it? I am not quite sure what the deal is and how it will help Jelsoft :S.
Thanks a lot for replying to this thread, its great to see the staff in management care enough to respond with such a detailed post .
I am just hoping to god that vBulletin is not ruined for money in the short term.Comment
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repeat this message in less than 12months time. Trust me, I work for a large corporate that has just acquired another company. Changes will happen that will effect the customer. It is a fact in the corporate world.Comment
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I was wondering. What happens if Jelsoft and IB break up, what happens to the code you add into vbulletin that is owned by IB? Wouldnt this cause a lot of trouble?
Also, is there any news on vbulletin 4.0? It has been talked about for ages and we havent heard about it for months and months. Will IB be funding it to speed up development? I fear that 4.0 is not evening being developed and no where near completion for months to come.
Also, has IB bought Jelsoft or putting capital in and gaining interest from it? I am not quite sure what the deal is and how it will help Jelsoft :S.
Thanks a lot for replying to this thread, its great to see the staff in management care enough to respond with such a detailed post .
I am just hoping to god that vBulletin is not ruined for money in the short term.
a) someone else buys Jelsoft from IB
b) Management buy out (who knows?)
As an example, something like webhostingtalk.com - started by a guy called Matt, sold to a big server company, sold then onto basically a private equity company, and the private equity company was then bought by another private equity company. Each time, the owner added value and then managed to sell it for a higher value.
I’d expect to see no different with this.
Overall, I'm going to reserve making judgement on the outcome of this until things start changing (or they don't..).Alasdair Stewart || SolidPHP, Inc - www.solidphp.com
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Ok, I am starting to worry now as the same might happen here .Last edited by ---MAD---; Wed 4 Jul '07, 2:08pm.Comment
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No it is not. Your personal experiences do not constitute proof that every such acquisition is doom to screw the customer. All they show is you work for companies in which such changes did happen. Not all acquisitions are the same nor do they all occur the same way with the same changes. But hey feel free to continue to claim the sky is falling...Comment
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No it is not. Your personal experiences do not constitute proof that every such acquisition is doom to screw the customer. All they show is you work for companies in which such changes did happen. Not all acquisitions are the same nor do they all occur the same way with the same changes. But hey feel free to continue to claim the sky is falling...Comment
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No it is not. Your personal experiences do not constitute proof that every such acquisition is doom to screw the customer. All they show is you work for companies in which such changes did happen. Not all acquisitions are the same nor do they all occur the same way with the same changes. But hey feel free to continue to claim the sky is falling...
Show me an aquistition where the end result jhas not ended up in the "consumer" getting screwed.
I have been in the IT industry for 21 years and have seen numerous takeovers in both my company and others. The end result has always seen a change in the end customer. That is a fact.
Now in your country, ie USA and not Britain, if you want to prove me wrong feel free.Comment
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