Today I learned that Active Network has acquired FellowshipOne. The first thing you should do is read the press release here.
They are saying all the right things, the kind of things that are always said at acquisitions, but I have very serious reservations about this. I'm trying to think of a single product that has gotten better through acquisition for the userbase.
The first thing that came to mind for me was this excellent article at 37 signals, What happens after Yahoo acquires you. While FellowshipOne is not being purchased by Yahoo, I don't think we should ignore this type of precedent. At the very least this acquisition inserts a giant amount of uncertainty into the ChMS market.
Joel
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3 comments:
Joel, this is very interesting and will be interesting to watch over time.
Joel, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Joel,
We decided to join Active Network for strategic reasons that over time will become very apparent. So far, after 40 days of integration, everything seems to be going smoothly and as advertised from both sides. In fact, the integration team just completed a call where both sides agreed that things were progressing extremely well. Active is very happy to have bought a company that is so "authentically passionate" about the market that it serves.
As part of Active, as our vision becomes reality, Fellowship Technologies will be able to offer The Church things that no other ChMS vendor can offer at this time, or in the future, without drastically changing its business model. These things will not only help bring the unchurched to Christ, they will also help people grow spiritually, emotionally and physically so that the community is well served. After all, The Church is one of the cornerstones to the community that can help us all live a fuller life (John 10:10).
To quote Austin Spooner, "this is very interesting and will be interesting to watch over time."
Grace to you,
Jeff Hook
Fellowship Technologies
Part of The Active Network
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