Very successful fellow told me early in my career that money is not the product and any company operating as if it is, is doomed to eventual failure. If you make a quality product and please the customer the money will follow. Money is the byproduct of a job well done.
But guess that's just old school thinking now.......
What strikes me as very telling about the way IB is dealing with the new vB 4.0 is that vast majority of site that IB owns that use vBulletin are still running the 3.8.x branch. You would thing that they would want to migrate lots of their own sites to their own version of the software.
As someone that also writes products that run on vBulletin sites that with every update they have put out we've had to go back in and make adjustments to keep our products working. That sure does take time away from adding new features when one has to spend a lot of time just keeping up with the little things.
I bought in on the vB 4 presale. Oy, what a cluster fark that has been. It's been about a year now that I spent the $130 for a product that will probably never see the light of day on Motoring Alliance. With that in mind I've been keeping a keen eye on XenForo, a new forum software package written by some of the previous authors of vBulletin that left when IB bought the company.
Will have to say that the sites that I go to that use the latest version; while possibly having more bells and whistles, I do not find as user friendly as this/old one. Always seems to take more clicks to do the same thing.. 2 cents
What hapens to all the sites they own when (not if, IMHO) IB goes down?
Do they just cease to be?
About the time the stock tops out, watch the principals flee like rats off a ship, taking their cash with them.....
When I read about accounting tactics like this, it really points out how many companies today are run on smoke and mirrors, and yet how many folks are still getting stinking rich off of them.
I've seen changes in my own company since it was bought out 2 years ago, and I wonder how many of those changes (none of which have been beneficial to me or my co-workers) are driven by these same tactics?
your friend must not ever have heard of Wall Street. Problem with public companies is that they're beholden to the quarterly earnings report and all the bad decisions that come with the resulting short-term outlook.
Exactly, and they learned that if they could keep that accounting looking good, the stock holders were happy and the bonuses would keep flooding in. All a house of cards though in the long run because the profit was from musical chairs instead of from making and finding better ways to produce a better mouse trap.... A real asset, one that can be seen and touched.
Private Equity Firm Acquires Internet Brands In $640 Million Deal
Internet media company Internet Brands this morning announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of private equity investment firm Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners VI in a transaction valued at approximately $640 million.
Under the terms of the agreement, stockholders of NASDAQ-listed Internet Brands will receive $13.35 in cash for each outstanding share of common stock they own, a premium of approximately 46.5% over the closing price last Friday.
Internet Brands owns and operates more than 100 vertical websites, including Autos.com, Gardens.com, Loan.com and DoItYourself.com. In total, Internet Brands claims these sites organically attract approximately 62 million unique visitors per month.
The company was founded in 1998 by business incubator Idealab.
When the company last posted its financial results, it reported revenues of $28.1 million in the second quarter of this year and net income of $4.6 million in second quarter.
Idealab, which beneficially owns approximately 19% of Internet Brands’ outstanding common stock and approximately 64% of the voting power of the company, has entered into a voting agreement with an affiliate of Hellman & Friedman relating to the merger agreement.
The merger deal is subject to stockholder approval, including approval by holders of a majority of the outstanding common stock not owned by Idealab and other parties, and customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Debt financing commitments have been provided by Bank of America, N.A., BMO Capital Markets, GE Capital and RBC Capital Markets.
Update: Internet Brands CEO Bob Brisco blogson INET going private again:
We became a public company three years ago, just as the global financial markets began to falter—and ultimately crater. We’ve prospered, despite the most difficult economic, financial, and advertising market backdrop in about 85 years.
We take pride in our NASDAQ performance and shareholder returns. At the $13.35 offer price, our stock would have appreciated roughly 67% from our IPO. That compares to an overall NASDAQ decline during the same period of roughly -10%. Our management team is proud of our performance and I am proud of them. We are blessed with a great team.
So, why potentially go private again? Because we believe this would be a good deal for our shareholders. Because we would continue to build one of the finest New Media companies in the world and become even more focused on long-term growth. Because H&F would be a great partner.
Update 2: Law firm Levi & Korsinsky is already announcing that they’ll investigate if the Board of Directors has breached its fiduciary duties to stockholders by “failing to adequately shop the Company” before entering into this transaction.
Manipulate the value via creative accounting, get bought out for a 46% premium by a holding company who finances the purchase via leveraging the debt and everybody goes home stinking rich. It's the new American business model, and it's been gold for some people.
But in the meantime, nothing gets made or sold, so in the end just like a ponzi scheme it will collapse in on itself.....
They use a brand free version that the original site owner purchased. In fact all of the add-on's that the site uses are all brand free as the previous owner did not want to make it really easy for someone else to see all he was using.
As to the vB version it is 3.6.4, a quite old version that doesn't support things such as Tapatalk.
The site also uses VBSEO, PhotoPost, ReviewPost, and vBadvanced as does this site. Not a one has had the security or functionality updates, unlike M/A that stays on top of all the updates, especially the security ones.
NAM is the new MINI2, unfortunately. It's really a shame that both sites, which really were spots where MINI enthusiasts could banter (almost) freely, have become nothing more than corporate run entities with agendas not obvious to the majority of the members. If you don't push the right vendor, beware of the powers that be...
I wish both, which I believe started out somewhat as labors of love, could have gone over to someone with that same original philosophy. To a certain degree, they both sort of sold out. Maybe that's too harsh, but it's my take on it. I understand everyone wants to make money, and the sites became so large that they weren't easily manageable, but it's really tragic what's happened to both sites.
I agree with Nate--I suspect the majority of people don't realize whose in charge, especially the newer members. It's really frustrating to watch both slowly go down the drain...I don't know Motoring On, or any of the newer mods at MINI2, but I can't imagine what would possess anyone who was in this from the beginning to want to moderate on what those sites have become. If it were me, I'd feel like I'd been pimped out.
There still is a ton of useful info on both sites. I hope it doesn't get lost.
:beer
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