Adobe Systems has acquired Business Catalyst, which is the American-Australian company behind the Goodbarry e-commerce platform. The acquisition was kept silent, with no press releases about it and no official statement from Adobe, except for some information published by Business Catalyst and Goodbarry on their sites, this most likely to not make the current users of Business Catalyst worry about the transition. Business Catalyst and its Goodbarry brand are content management system platforms that enable web designers and web developers set up online businesses for customers at a fraction of the usual time and cost without programming. BC and Goodbarry consolidate at least 10 tools or functions that are essential in online businesses. Tools for site management, e-mail marketing, ecommerce tools and analytics, among many others, are found in one central control panel.
According to the Q&A portion in Business Catalyst's site, Adobe acquired the SaaS (Software-as-a- Service) company with two reasons first, it lets website professionals to construct online businesses for their clients at a short period of time and at a cheaper cost, also its flagship product is a good complement to Adobe's existing services and tools for the web. Adobe bought Business Catalyst for an undisclosed amount, but this could be millions of dollars. As for BC's management team, there will be no changes, they will remain intact and continue to run BC with the support of the whole Adobe organization.
The information published in the Business Catalyst site indicates that the BC management team, its products, pricing, support services, and partner agreements will remain as is for now. Any changes and initiatives for the long-term are currently in their planning stages, Business Catalyst says. BC assures that "more concrete plans will be announced soon." But as we all know Adobe had been great in all of its products so there's nothing much worry on any changes, it is surely for the betterment of the software.
However, with regard to Goodbarry, the Goodbarry site relates that there will be some changes to the brand in the coming months. It says that they will be refocusing marketing and sales efforts on the web professional market via Business Catalyst, as opposed to Goodbarry's "web-savvy DIYers" clientele. The site explains that this means Goodbarry's retail operations will cease, to give way to wholesale operations, and that it will only be selling subscriptions to its software via its partner and reseller network.
The Goodbarry brand was shut down as of October 1, 2009 and no statement yet as to until when this will take place.