If a tree falls in a forest… and is acquired by another tree… does it make a sound?
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So what is the latest hot topic among the software industry’s bigger companies these days? Acquisitions locally. Believe it.
Among the places I was present, this topic came up at Lunch in a CEO Forum in Islamabad last month, again at a Forum in Karachi on Raising Venture Capital about a week ago, and then a few times during a PASHA-supported Pakistani delegation to Singapore.
It seems like people can foresee a time in the short-term when bigger IT companies will start acquiring smaller ones to gain access to technology or markets to take them forward. This would be a pretty significant move. Think about it – this would provide the smaller players an exit strategy that doesnt involve IPO.
This means that over time investment funds that are time-limited could also begin to emerge in the industry. It also means that CEOs would hopefully (finally?) start thinking about raising valuation through creating better brands, more proprietary technology, better domain ownership, rather than simply trying everything that can increase revenue alone.
Here’s hope.
It seems though, that its already happen on the level very small companies acquiring other small companies. One such recent example has been DevNext Solutions — a tiny dev shop by the people behind Mulazamat (which seems abandoned now) — being acquired by Nuvica Inc. Read here.
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8:01 pm
I was just going through my RSS feeds then i saw the DevNext Solutions news on GreenWhite, i don;t know that you are following my blog
Anyways, this is really a big achievement for me and my company which i founded in April 2007. Out of no where, Nuvica showed interest for acquiring DevNext Solutions, they are impressed by the level of commitment we put for our work and after much analysis we accept the offer. So, now this single room startup grows bigger and better.
As far as Mulazamat is considered, this was just a idea we though we must implement. So after founding Mulazamat in Sep 2007 we hosted the initial idea which was well covered on GreenWhite and other sources. So, here comes another acqusition (can’t disclose it now) but we are not abandoned, we will soon launch again with all the features with international support.
11:18 pm
I dont – I follow the “official” company blog of Mulazamat.
1:11 am
@Osama – both are same
1:04 pm
Congratulations to Ali and his team at DevNet. We hope to receive more exciting news from you very soon.
9:38 pm
@Jehan – Thanks. we will Inshallah provide some more exciting news and services.
12:46 am
Is it true that your company was bad at paying your employees? We have heard it has been one of the major reasons you had to actually force or rather submit yourself into this acquisition offer? What do you have to say about this? This issue often comes up when this acquisition is talked about. We would like your input.
1:16 am
@Salman – My company is bad at paying employees? How many employees do you think a single room dev shop have? As far as this acquisition is considered, we are not forced, neither i submitted my self into the acquisition offer. DevNext Solutions will now as a Dev Center for Nuvica Inc whereas i will be fulfilling my management responsibilities.
So, it is not true, there is a instance where a freelance worker was not paid and if you are following my blog, you can understand why.
http://alirazashaikh.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-want-to-sue-scb.html
1:25 am
Well there’s absolutely no reason why i would be following your blog, I follow green & white and i think its good enough. This post you showed us here also is over three weeks old. Was the payment issue to this person you’re talking about resolved?
1:43 am
@Salman – i thought when people hear some false information about the company they tends to follow the company website/blog for more news
and as far as i know, this is the first post about DevNext Solutions in G&W. Post is over three weeks old? So?. And to add to your knowledge, that person is one of my good friend 
. I am thankful to SCB guys for solving the issue.
Any other thing you want to know?
9:10 am
I would advise you to be more professional and keep such things “official” in an “official” sense instead of keeping them on your personal blog and calling it official…
best of luck!
9:56 am
@Salman – Yup, You are right! It seems quite odd that Mr. Ali Raza Shake is aiming for high while ‘most’ of the stuff lacks professionalism.
10:02 pm
I was just thinking that an acquisition news is big when a big company acquires a ‘famous’ company for it’s product? For example, it would be a great news if we hear iScrybe acquired by Adobe or Urdu translation service acquired by Google. Or even Mulazamat by Rozee or Monster? But a single room ‘services’ company which has trouble handling banking … sorry but it sounds more like Nuvica ‘employing’ the owner of Dev Next. If it’s acquisition, what did they acquire (if anything)?
2:46 am
@Salman – I am not calling anything official, i just share what happens around me on my personal blog. Thats all!.
@Daniyal – Making fun of one’s name is professionalism, then sorry my friend, i am not a professional.
@Ammar – Yes, you are right, people tends to ask me Why Nuvica acquired a 8 month old company? Why not someone else. Trouble handling banking? what you think, i only work with SCB? i was not happy with their service so shared my experience on my blog that has nothing to do with paying employees. Most of my employees are my batch mates and friends, so we have a very good working environment.