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FatWire buys Australian reseller

30-Dec-2007

Tags: Web Content and Experience Management, Marketplace at Large, Selecting Technology, FatWire Content Server

In news from "down under" Web CMS vendor FatWire has quietly bought a company called Future Tense Solutions, which previously had exclusive rights to represent FatWire in Australia and New Zealand.

Future Tense Solutions was founded by a small team of former Open Market colleagues, who had been working with Content Server since the late '90s. When FatWire came in and bought Content Server from divine in 2003, the company decided not to buy quite a few of the global offices, including the Australian ones.

As a private company, FatWire remains closed about its financials, and few details are available about this acquisition. According to a very brief statement on the Future Tense Solutions website, all Future Tense staff have become FatWire employees. This means that FatWire is now directly present in the region. Compared to other CMS vendors of similar size, FatWire retains a broadly global footprint, although many regions are mainly staffed by salespeople.

To FatWire this is the 2nd acquisition in 2 months (after Long Island-based wiki vendor Infostoria in November). Buying successful resellers might make good business sense, but clearly some change is afoot at FatWire more broadly.

To technology buyers, the impact of an reseller acquisition like this is dependent on employee retention and whether the change means less flexibility relative to local requirements. Time will tell if this is positive to buyers in Australia and New Zealand. We'll certainly be following it closely.

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