New York — Adobe Systems has acquired Business Catalyst, maker of the GoodBarry online business suite for web professionals, the part American, part Australian company, for an undisclosed amount, Adobe confirmed on Monday.
Details are pretty insufficient, but according to reports it seems that the GoodBarry e-commerce suite brand will be shut down as of October 1 and re-branded as Business Catalyst, but that will merely be a cosmetic change, the company said.
According to an FAQ on the Business Catalyst site, shed a minimal amount of light on the agreement Adobe is acquiring Business Catalyst/GoodBarry because:
“GoodBarry enables web professionals to build online businesses for their clients at a fraction of the traditional time and cost, without programming. GoodBarry will be a valuable asset to Adobe’s existing tools and services for web professionals, who are increasingly looking to hosted services to deliver websites and online businesses.”
Business Catalyst’s technology was built with Web designers in mind, the company said.
GoodBarry, meanwhile, provides an integrated system for running Web sites and offers e-mail marketing. GoodBarry has been around since 2004.
“There are some changes we will be making to GoodBarry in the coming months,” according to the GoodBarry site. “Most importantly, we will be refocusing our marketing and sales efforts on the Web professional market (via businesscatalyst.com), as opposed to Web-savvy DIYers such as you. In other words, this means that eventually we will cease “retail” operations and focus on our wholesale operations and we will only be selling subscriptions to our software via our partner and reseller network.”
The site also states GoodBarry soon will be only for Web designers. The GoodBarry brand will be shut down on Oct. 1.
“You will be able to create free trials until 1st October 2009, and you will be able to upgrade those sites until 1st of November 2009. After that date, no sites will be able to be upgraded via GoodBarry,” the site states.
The GoodBarry FAQ also stressed that there will be no delay in software delivery and support due to the transition.
“Here at GoodBarry we are incredibly excited to be joining Adobe in furthering our mission of Online Businesses, Not Websites,” the GoodBarry page said.
The current Business Catalyst team is expected to remain largely intact at Adobe, Business Catalyst said. The company also expressed a continued commitment to partners and customers. Adobe did not provide information on the cost of the acquisition.
An intriguing question however is why Adobe bought Business Catalyst in the first place and what its intentions are with the company in the near future.
For its part, TechCrunch, which reported on the acquisition, said:
“Adobe evidently provides a wide range of tools for web professionals, but in the near future does not plan to incorporate Business Catalyst’s products into its own offering, although they are apparently seeking to hosted services to deliver websites and online businesses more and more.”