Go Together
The title of this post is actually a quote. It's an African proverb that was shared with me by my friend and entrepreneur, Cory Miller. It's motivated a number of us in the WordPress community to think about collaboration with people even considered our competition. It's focused us to work together for the good of the entire ecosystem.
They're wise words, first spoken by someone in Africa, and now leveraged by many in our community as a short hand for various kinds of partnerships.
In the case I'm going to tell you about today, it's the acquisition and merger of two companies in the WordPress world that are each amazing in their own right. Instead of going alone, they've decided to go further.
If you didn't already know, I'm on the Board of Directors for a WordPress company called VeloMedia. Today, VeloMedia announced the acquisition of Crowd Favorite – a long-standing and well known WordPress company.
Here's the announcement
VeloMedia and Crowd Favorite announced today that they have entered into an agreement under which VeloMedia will acquire Crowd Favorite.
The acquisition of Crowd Favorite, the leading WordPress company providing both professional services and software products, will accelerate VeloMedia's work in delivering enterprise WordPress consulting to its Fortune 500 customers.
Karim Marucchi, CEO of VeloMedia, said “VeloMedia's experience in enterprise software consulting is now matched by Crowd Favorite's long-standing WordPress expertise. As the longest-running WordPress consultancy, there was no question Crowd Favorite had the approach, skills, and experience to further our efforts in bringing WordPress to our Fortune 500 clients.”
“I'm really excited to be joining forces with VeloMedia. I feel the culture and focus on craftsmanship at Crowd Favorite is special, and was thrilled to find that VeloMedia shares our values. We look forward to a continued focus on development excellence, employee culture and, most importantly, top notch service for our clients,” stated Alex King, founder of Crowd Favorite, who will now step into the role of CTO of the merged business.
The combined business will adopt the Crowd Favorite brand going forward; which will now include offices in Los Angeles, Denver, Las Vegas, New York, Rome, and Bucharest.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and the approvals of both boards. The transaction is expected to close in early 2014.
What about you?
For those of us involved in the deal, it's an exciting time. But even for those who aren't involved, or not impacted, there's still the bigger question.
If you wanted to go further than you could now, who could you partner or collaborate with, to help get you there?