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The plans for Undeveloped to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Seattle-Based Epik Holdings, Inc. will not happen.
The 4 million Euro acquisition was announced in March 2017 but never materialized.
The companies have decided that rather than merge Undeveloped into Epik Holdings, both companies can operate more efficiently if the companies remain distinct.
The two companies will operate independently as strategic partners. They will continue to work together on a couple of fronts ranging from the Epik registrar business to the Undeveloped.com marketplace. Epik customers can continue to use their Epik single-sign-on credentials to manage their account at Undeveloped.
Undeveloped has a big announcement in the coming weeks.
Here is the complete announcement email sent out today by Undeveloped:
Hi,
As you may know, Epik and Undeveloped have been working closely for some time.
Earlier this year, we announced plans for Undeveloped to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Seattle-Based Epik Holdings, Inc. Upon further review, the companies have decided that rather than merge Undeveloped into Epik Holdings, both companies will be able to operate more efficiently if the companies remain distinct.
The two companies will operate independently as strategic partners. Epik customers can continue to use their Epik single-sign-on credentials to manage their account at Undeveloped.
In essence for you, nothing should change. You can still get the same great service from both Undeveloped and Epik.
To close, keep a close eye on Undeveloped in the coming weeks. We have a big announcement to share with you soon. The past months we’ve been working hard on something we believe will effectively allow the entire domain industry to make a strong leap forward.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Go to Undeveloped
Best regards,
Team Undeveloped
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This is very strange that the announcement of the acquisition would be made when it could be canceled by Epik at a later date. Why make the announcement if it’s not a done deal? Very strange. Makes me question the integrity of Epik. Is this how they do business? Anyone else?
Are you Tony the dentist domainer?
So…if you announce you are engaged and going to marry someone, and then somewhere down the line during the engagement you realize it’s not the best way to go, and even both of you feel the same way, so you change your mind(s) instead of going to the altar merely because it was the previously and genuinely announced plan in the past, that’s a problem?
Methinks not. And I like a good opportunity to use “methinks” sometimes.
John,
You’re off on your analogy.
‘Engaged to marry’, is same as ‘intend to acquire’.
‘Acquisition of’, is same as ‘married’.
They used the latter in their original announcement.
…just saying…
LOL. Okay, now I see the shocking outrage of it all, that an acquisition agreement may have included an unannounced back out clause, or something like that.
Look, normally I’m the one who would dissect an analogy, which by definition are not supposed to be perfect. But this is real life, not a cartoon. And in real life it makes perfect sense that agreements like that may include terms that allow for a back out or change or course. In which case, the analogy would still amount to either effectively a betrothal, or a divorce (perish the thought), take your pick.
This still amounts to nothing more or less sensational than choosing the blue HTML footer after further deliberation and based on new light despite having previously and genuinely intended and said one planned to go with green. And vice versa.
And look at it this way:
My first version of my first reply to Tony here was really going to begin with statements like “Are you for real?” and “That is absolutely ridiculous” (the one I first settled on). But then I changed my mind. Then. 🙂
P.S. This kind of normal change of course in life, especially when mutual terms allow it, is right up there in terms of innocuous as going with green for the page footer at the last minute when you may have previously said you planned to go with blue.
In practice, merging 2 companies, 2 websites, 2 brands, 2 teams, 2 support platforms, 2 back-end platforms, 2 strategies, and more than 2 time zones isn’t always the best fit.
I worked closely with Reza and believe he and Undeveloped have a lot to offer. Epik does too, which is why I’m working at Epik. End result: 2 good companies … remain 2 good companies.
thought this was a great match up….seemed like a ton of synergies in place and most of the domain marketplaces have been purchased….as a domainer i could see the combined traffic of both brands being a plus in selling domains…brandbucket seems to spend a boatload on marketing their marketplace. I personally like both products…seemed like a power couple.