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Australian search engine and online media company Ansearch Limited (ASX:ANH) has acquired Mambo Communities Pty Ltd, a company which runs a community of websites for open source Mambo software developers.

Mambo Communities was set up by Peter Lamont, one of the founding developers of the open source Mambo content management system, to service the growing community of Mambo users worldwide through its network of Mambo websites. The websites provide discussion forums, galleries of Mambo sites, news, documentation and Mambo related plug-ins and templates to assist software developers.

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/3827/53/

Anasearch company info:
http://www.asx.com.au/asx/research/Comp ... sxCode=ANH

See Press Release attached below:

ouch. sorry for the oneliner, but just: ouch!

Why ouch? from the article i can only see positive things.. behind most opensource products are commercial companies

Because is quite different from is financially supporting..

You know the really sad thing.  There's only about 4-5 people discussing this over at the old homestead.  They just don't understand.

I still spend a bit of time over there but it's like a ghost town.  There are still lots of posts but most of them are in the "what's the best forum / gallery / shop..." or "I downloaded this thing now how do I install it..." camp.  A community without a community.  The newcomers must wonder what the Hell is going on with this great award winning software.

A shame, a real shame.  Lamont, you've a lot to feel embarassed about.

Anasearch is not a benevolent software company looking to market via supporting open source.
Read the Anasearch press release attached to the first post.
Anasearch's motivation is marketing their services, not supporting an open source project.

Also the numbers quoted are very interesting.
Both the price and the supposed number of Mambo users, forum users, etc.

The price is "up to $1 million" cash and/or stock which is based on future revenues.
This has to be justified by what they expect to earn from what they sell to the Mambo users.

There is going to be some major marketing pushes of some sort directed at Mambo users and forum users.
People are already concerned about their email addresses in the Mambo forum - rightfully so.

Adding a comment - this is not yet a done deal. Ansearch are doing due diligence and will be voting on the acquisition next month.

You are right Ian, nobody seems bothered. However, there are very few people over there who have any experience with either Mambo or open source projects.  Those of us who have been around awhile know that commercial buy-ins of open source projects tend to have extreme results - either very good, or very bad, and not much in between. Reading up on this corporation gives nothing to feel complacent about.

Some folk have suggested I overreacted when I suggested everyone change their email addresses to a disposable one. I stick by that comment and strongly urge anyone with an account on the Mambo forum to change their email.  The proposed buyer has had various accusations against them in the past relating to things like cybersquatting.  The Ansearch search engine, just one of their group of companies, has a privacy statement that shows quite clearly that that company at least will use email addresses to sell services or products. 

When I saw the title of this thread I was almost not going to look at it. I am really pleased nobody has been gloating. Joomla is also full of newer users and many may not appreciate that a lot of people here put a lot of time, effort, and soul into Mambo over the years. It's sad to see a man's apparent greed hurting the work of so many volunteers.

Ya just gotta feel for the regular guys at Mambo.
Things settle down, they get to work . . . and another bombshell.
There is just no way this is going spin pretty.
My prediction is this will create more converts.

This trend is probably going to continue:
Joomla and Mambo CMS (Alexa traffic chart)
http://www.compassdesigns.net/option,co ... id,84/p,8/

Elpie, I think you're absolutely right about this. I cannot remove or change my emailaddress since I was banned during the Joomla split. The weird thing is: my account is viewable for everyone but I can't change the settings. I once more asked them to remove my account.

I'm in the same position Tom. When I was banned last year most of my posts were removed, but some were missed. My name is still on those posts, but when I was allowed back at the end of the year I was able to use the same username, so I can only hope that means that my old account was removed.  I can hope, but cant be sure. Also cant be sure the email addresses aren't archived somewhere.

isnt it illegal to sell our email address without our consent?
And I didnt see anything in the mambo registration that they have the right to use/sell our email

does anyone know of any legal stuff about his one?

they aren't selling our email addresses. they sold the forums...so now they own our email addresses.

when registering, you had the option to click (it was defaulted checked) 'receive mail from administrators' guess who is administrating now?

thank good I stil have access to my account there
I'm going to change my mail adress 

Probably you know something I don't? Administrator is still the same at Mambo.

More on Mambo in trouble and the recent resignation of Martin Brampton from his position on the Mambo Foundation Board.

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4200/
History's repeating.

Any word on what the Mambo Dev Team is doing?

Judging by the number of posts over there recently? Looking for new jobs.

Supposedly, at least for the 'surviving' core team member, Chad Auld, the deal with Ansearch hasn't gone through yet, even though the Ansearch Board meeting to ratify it was a week ago..

Travis Fraser is back doing "support", along with yet another "newbie" supermod..

Edit: Looks like the Mambo conspiracy nuts have already got into the IT Wire article, showing how reasonable and rational they are in defending Mambo (supposedly) against Martin Brampton.

Just read Ansearch's aquisition press release and Martin Bramptons press release regarding his withdrawal from the board. Interesting read... I took the liberty of posting them both on my blog: http://www.torkiljohnsen.com/2006/05/09 ... n-trouble/

And someone has already pointed out the obvious writing style of Hazman. Typical spin.

I think Mambo is effectively dead as a project.  It's still alive but where is it going to get the injection of new skill, talent and enthusiasm.  It's dead yet still walking. 

Well, at least it can't function as an real open source project anymore. To start with: there is no community. There are still a lot of people who use it but at the forum you can see that there are hardly members active, more than 95% are guests.
And like Iain says: they won't get enough volunteers for a project which is in it's essence commercial.

(I even think they don't have a dutch moderator anymore)

Peter should have listened while he had the chance. There was more than enough opportunity for Mambo to adhere to what was right and necessary.  He ignored the general open source community and what they wanted for this software. As far as I'm concerned, we have what we asked for in terms of continually productive software progression albeit a slow process. Mambo was a gravesite long ago. Not that I'm all that happy about all that's going on around here either in terms of politics and other misc horse garbage. Everyone seems to want to listen after it's too late. That's the sad reality of it all. Many chiefs and no real leaders. The Core of Joomla has fallen apart due to the negligence of the "Boss". You cannot lead a core software project without giving leadership rights to those that offer their services. We are still at loss in many areas with Joomla. One being compliant with web accessibility. Lose those that have the expertise, let them go, or just not care, you'll never make head way. That goes for all that volunteer. All count.

The part of open source software that has intrigued me for many years was the word "Open" and what it has stood for. Take that away from those who strive to give, and you'll have nothing to offer yourself.

As a youngster new at management, I had a wise person tell me that "it's those around you that make you". It's certainly not ourselves that achieve the great works,  but rather those that we have next to us that help us achieve our positions. Remove those or allow those that have the capacity to offer to leave under less than pleasant circumstances, you reduce that in which you intended as a success.

Mambo is a good example of what happens when you pull the software out from under the feet of those who created and gave to it. Joomla, if it keeps on it's current path and doesn't take heed to the warnings will lose those who give and support which will render the software less than it's intention and not be all that it could be.

As of this, the subject of the thread was changing. Therefore, the discussion was split. The rest be found here: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,61074.0.html.