vBulletin sold to Internet Brands Inc.

**nwingate** · 07-04-2007, 03:02 PM

Just in case you missed the announcement... Jelsoft (the makers of vBulletin) has been sold to Internet Brands Inc. This is bad news in my book.

Internet Brands purchased DIY Home Improvement Information | DoItYourself.com earlier this year which is a large vBulletin based forum. So now... my largest competitor owns the very software I use to run my site.

Finally, I wonder how them owning a large/profitable vbulletin based website will effect their decisions on how they develop the software. Will they make it decisions based on what is best for their own sites instead of what is best for everyone?

**BamaStangGuy** · 07-04-2007, 04:42 PM

I don't like this any more than you

**Ken Iovino** · 07-04-2007, 06:22 PM

I feel the same way. I don't see this really going in any good direction.

**Mike** · 07-04-2007, 06:38 PM

I don't have a good feeling about this either. The announcement says that the day to day operations will remain basically the same, but we all know, when new ownership comes in, new management will come in, and things will change.

The fact of them already owning a large vbulletin based community also makes me concerned as I fear they will direct the future development of the product toward their own interests.

As someone that has invested a large amount of time in building an online presence around vbulletin, I am now greatly concerned about the future of not only vbulletin, but of my own interests as well.

**Moelman** · 07-04-2007, 06:59 PM

Only time will tell if this is a good decision or a bad one, but I'm with you guys, I wasn't too thrilled with the announcement.

**Mike** · 07-04-2007, 09:57 PM

Seems rather interesting that they chose to not have a discussion set up for this announcement like they do for most announcements. I would imagine that was decided by the new owners.

**LeeD** · 07-04-2007, 11:17 PM

I am not happy with this at all. I am one of their top software license holders (in terms of number owned) and this concerns me as to what the future holds for their software.

**Ken Iovino** · 07-05-2007, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike

Seems rather interesting that they chose to not have a discussion set up for this announcement like they do for most announcements. I would imagine that was decided by the new owners.

Mike, I thought the same thing. I found this: Jelsoft's future - vBulletin Community Forum

**Ken Iovino** · 07-05-2007, 04:03 AM

Quote from James Limm, Managing Director for Jelsoft...

Quote:

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,

James

**Mike** · 07-05-2007, 08:35 AM

Quote:

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.

Up until now, improvements to the product have all been included withing the core product. I know that adding things like a blog, or possibly a CMS is a major add-on and I would expect this to cost extra, but I wonder just how much of their future development will now be aimed toward more add-ons, rather than including things in the core product?

Anyhow, it is a waiting game at this point. All these people can make all the statements they want, it is their actions over the next year or so that will tell the true story. As for myself, I will be putting any ideas for new forum based projects on hold for now, as well as any further changes on current sites that are dependent on vbulletin.

**Smithers** · 07-05-2007, 11:26 PM

This is the exact reason why I am making a free forum software that will have everything that vB has but way more.

**Mike** · 07-05-2007, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smithers

This is the exact reason why I am making a free forum software that will have everything that vB has but way more.

you knew that vbulletin was going to sell out to internet brands???????

**kriscad** · 07-06-2007, 01:02 AM

having flashbacks from the old UBB days....

**Smithers** · 07-06-2007, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike

you knew that vbulletin was going to sell out to internet brands???????

No I knew they would eventually sell to someone who would only think about themselves and wouldn't update as much.

**Ken Iovino** · 07-06-2007, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike

Up until now, improvements to the product have all been included withing the core product. I know that adding things like a blog, or possibly a CMS is a major add-on and I would expect this to cost extra, but I wonder just how much of their future development will now be aimed toward more add-ons, rather than including things in the core product?

The release of their Project Tools (Bug System) was announced last week and is being sold for $50.00 per license. I would assume other official add-ons would cost around the same.

EDIT: They also just added the Official vBulletin Blogs system on vBulletin.com. Though not available for download yet.

**imported_Tekime** · 07-06-2007, 04:03 PM

This is scary news for a lot of people.

For me, it's terrible for a different reason. It's the opportunity I've been waiting for, but the timing is all wrong!

**imported_dvduval** · 07-08-2007, 11:32 PM

Any idea what it sold for?
Or any guesses?

**Brandon** · 07-09-2007, 02:11 AM

3 mill ?

**nwingate** · 07-21-2007, 11:38 PM

Quick update....

Not only did Internet Brands buy vBulletin but as of July 19th they know own some of the largest auto forums on the net such as Ford-Trucks.com, F150Online.com, CorvetteForum.com and may more. check out the list here: Internet Brands, Inc.

Oh.... and then they filed a $100 Million Dollar IPO: Internet Brands files for $100 million IPO | News | New Issues & IPO's | Reuters

Everything is starting to come together here!

**Frito Pie** · 07-24-2007, 12:12 PM

Yeah, noticed they bought Joe's bike.net. I hope he got a great deal and is biking around the world.

Now when they start gobbling up sites in my niche...