After Acquisition, Open-Source CMS Makes Promises to Community

Amberly Dressler
by Amberly Dressler 31 Aug, 2017
After Acquisition, Open-Source CMS Makes Promises to Community
Did you hear about DNN?

The Web content management system was acquired by ESW Capital " to further invest in the CMS platform as well as the DNN open source ecosystem" as stated in the press release.

By all accounts, those appear to be the two main priorities. When asked what this acquisition means for current DNN customers and future product development, new CEO Andy Tryba (replacing outgoing CEO Navin Nagiah) told Website Magazine:

"DNN will further invest in customer success and introduce new support programs to enable customers to see even more value. The product roadmap itself will undergo some intermediate changes focused on simplicity and ease of use. DNN will also further invest in the open source platform and the overall partner community."

A re-focus on the open source ecosystem is also evident with DNN Co-Founder Joe Brinkman transparently publishing the following in the company's community blog:

"Over the past decade DNN Corp has struggled to find a balance between the interests of the community and our commercial interests. All too often we have come across as hostile to our own community or kept the community at arm's length. This conflict has been counter-productive: it has hurt the community which in turn hurts our company. That is something that we absolutely will change."

DNN's developer community seems to have responded positively to the news hoping it means the open source side gets equal attention and investment. Open source contributor Daniel Mettler poignantly wrote on DNN's site:

"This sounds like a big step.

I truly, truly pray that this open-source commitment is real, and strong. Sometimes I feel like we're the last ones still really donating thousands of hours of work with 2sxc - while most other in the community have stopped altogether, mostly due to things the DNN corp has been doing. 

If this is real, it's amazing."
Amberly Dressler
Amberly Dressler
Head of analyst relations, public relations, customer advocacy (People Heroes), customer community, content marketing (full funnel/lifecycle), content operations and optimization, reputation management and social media. Leads a team of nine superstars to exceed our goals multi-fold.