We've Struck a Deal

With great enthusiasm, we are pleased to announce that Raincity Studios has acquired the (almost-legendary) Drupal pioneer company, Bryght. The companies have enjoyed a longtime collaboration offering complementary services as they've grown professionally together. Our cultures and personalities are a great match and everyone around here is eager to see what we can create together.

Joining up with talented Bryght team allows Raincity Studios to combine support and operations while also offering an increased service roster to our growing client base who can now enjoy one-stop shopping. The expanded company will operate under the Raincity Studios banner and the Bryght name will carry on through the hosting products.

Busy Times at RCS

The Bryght acquisition comes in a period of rapid growth for Raincity Studios including moving to a hip Gastown office (shacking up with our new Bryght colleagues), opening an office in Shanghai, presenting and representing at conferences in Barcelona, Las Vegas, Beijing, and Berkeley, plus adding a handful of specialized and experienced staff - all in the past three months.

While the companies are close-by one another and have worked on over a hundred projects together, it wasn't until a recent trip to China where Scales and Krug dug into negotiating and figuring out how the new company could work, and if it was a good financial idea for the stakeholders on both sides. With the fresh deal, Scales will serve as CEO and head up Asian operations and Krug is the newly-anointed President and will hold down the Vancouver fort and all employees on both side are retained.

That Bryght Company

Bryght was an early participant in the "Web 2.0" industry as the first commercial Drupal entity and it is not overstatement to say they are significantly responsible for creating economic growth in Vancouver and beyond through knowledge sharing by organizing educational events and lecturing to groups of from colleges to business leaders.

What Bryght created/sold is a bit strange to explain at first blush to those who haven't swallowed the Drupal pill yet. In brief, Bryght created a special web hosting product with Drupal ready-to-go, allowing content publishers to quickly deploy multi-faceted, online presences. I know cause i am one of them.

They further evolved their "Hostmaster" mass hosting system for Drupal, as well diving into areas of XMPP and Identity 2.0 and mentoring others about the ROI of contributing code to core.

Bryght's early support of Raincity Studios was critical to the success of both companies as the firms formed a strong collaborative symmetry - Bryght attracted clients, many of whom needed design and development services which they handed off to RCS for bids, conversely, Raincity Studios sites needed a host to call home, just what Bryght offered. Efficient, enjoyable and successful.

In the deal, RCS acquires several hundred hosting customers, a batch of select consulting customers, and some hardware assets, but really, it's the employees.

Those Bryght Guys

Aside from the actual billable client work, these guys (yes, twas all gents at Bryght) are individually remarkable. I am saying this as a co-worker but also as someone who has reaped knowledge, friends and goodtimes (and even a job) through "hanging out," participating in their events and "getting in where i can fit in" here in tech-groovy Vancouver.

Boris, the hand-waving visionary pundit who spends 8 nights a week organizing and participating in events to support free wifi, open culture, new start-ups, and various stripes of software flavors - and then rallies the group for a gourmet foodie fest to follow. He'll concentrate on exploring and researching new ways to use open software to change the Internet world for the better.

Kris, the charismatic communicator who make tech stuff almost dangerously hip and finds a way to engage and inspire everyone he comes across - and he's as skilled behind the camera lens then he is by voice. Krug is always on the go lecturing, presenting, and appearing on mainstream media to discuss using the web as a tool for self/social expression.

Roland who says "Yes! Let's do it and also ..." to every idea which involves social media, mobile data, and pushing the bounds of what technology is "supposed to do" and then he'll tell everyone about how to do the same thing. After brewing up podcasts, live video streams, and workshops with him, I can attest to his obsession with all things new, shiny, and useful and look forward to some edu-tainment collaborations.

Richard the smart (and relatively quiet) guy who can patiently sort out most any problem while keeping a balance by writing about diverse topics from transit to hockey in Iceland. While he'll continue to be a support guru, expect to see him cherry-picking some development projects to pitch in on.

Rounding out the programmers-formerly-known-as-Bryght are Steven Wittens the (somewhat curmudgeonly) imported coding superstar with an international reputation and the skills to back it up with his myriad contributions; Adrian the eclectic South African developer (whose phptemplate theming system is critical in contemporary Drupal dev); Djun the zen-like PhD with a deep understanding of process and acronyms I've never heard, and finally fuzzy-cheeked Smith, cause you can't spell "INTERNET" without "INTERN."

Brave, New Future

The deal and our collective past is quite a story but the future is even more exciting with the expanded capabilities enabled by the acquisition. What do we have in mind? Well, a hint is more of the Bryght flavor with "turn-key" web communities featuring install profiles tuned specifically with the tools and modules which niche clients seek plus more production hosting solutions for customers seeking to manage multiple sites.

Of course, we'll still create the professionally-designed, custom sites which made Raincity Studios' reputation, but now the gamut from A-Z will be available from one enthusiastic web-savvy, new-media-loving, vendor. We're glad you're along for the ride.

More

Raincity Studios Acquires Bryght press release via PRWeb

Roland Tanglao, Bryght's Chief Blogging Officer writes personally Raincity Studios acquires Bryght and professionally, Raincity Acquiring Bryght

CBC etc.'s Tod Maffin posts an EXCLUSIVE: Bryght aquired by Raincity Studios

Bryght's Boris Mann tells the Drupal world Bryght and Raincity are joining forces ditto at BmannConsulting

The noted Van-blogfather Mr. Barefoot offers up Bryght Shiny Day for Raincity

The charming super-blogger Miss 604 chimes (from Iowa no less) with Raincity Studios Acquires Bryght
+ some followup Vancouver Social Media Scene: DemoCamp, Third Tuesday, Launch Party

StartupNorth chronicles the deal with Raincity Studios acquires Bryght

Dave Olson (me) with an account of Vancouver web biz Raincity Studios Acquires Drupal host Bryght

Good buddy Lee Lefever of Common Craft (makers of the handy Internet videos) writes Bryght and Rain City Studios - Together at Last

David Crow noticed the Bryght Day in The Raincity Studios

Blog Nation's Tris Hussey rolls out Raincity Studios & Bryght Marry to Make a Global Drupal Powerhouse

Micheal Tippet (Now Public honcho) blogged personally at Raincity Studios Acquires Bryght

Travis at Hop wonders about who's staying, who's leaving (briefly: everyone and no one)

Lauren Wood has some Vancouver Bits of News

Jay and Silent Rob noticed that Raincity Studios Acquired Bryght

Pure Gin is along for the Exciting times

Richard speaks historically in Raincity Studios Acquires Bryght, And With It, A "Support Cowboy"

Canada Bombshell picked up the Raincity acquires Bryght news release

Raincity Studios forecasts sunny skies with acquisition of web firm Bryght, Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun

Techmeme picked up release too on their 11/21/1400 edition

Trans-Pacific Robert Sanzalone included the deal in his pacificIT Today - 2007-11-21

Jon Husband offers his opinions in Vancouver's Finest Open Source Business Cowboys Merge and Expand Internationally

RCS Old-Skooler (and *hot* social media star), Will Pate flashes-back in Raincity Studios Buys Bryght, Opens Shanghai Office

Mashable Social Networking News' Sean P. Aune discusses Raincity Studios Acquires Drupal Host Bryght

Patrick in Montreal says "I never knew" that there could be a Bryghter-Raincity

RCS' young lion Steve knows Raincity Studios acquires Bryght & opens office in Shanghai

Profectio's Dave Forde includes the deal under Dealflow in Week That Was 2007-11-23

Client Scott G. of Harlequin says, "What a cute couple! Congrats! Congratulation on your merger/acquisition news with Bryght!"

Computer business Reviews' "Staff Writer" pens Raincity acquires Web 2.0 firm

billfitzgerald's Open Academic reports on Drupal goodtimes ahead in News From The Drop

Roland follows the fun with Watching the Story Break

Tom Millitzer, of New Commerce Communications, recaps in Web Hosting Mergers and Acquisitions - November 2007