Today at Pubcon, Brett Tabke and Jim Boykin announced that legendary web forum Webmaster World is changing hands. Tabke plans to focus more on his PubCon conference series, while Boykin will build out his Ninja Dojo community.
Today at Pubcon, Brett Tabke and Jim Boykin announced that legendary web forum Webmaster World is changing hands. Tabke plans to focus more on his PubCon conference series, while Boykin will build out new social features for the community.
This was the latest in a series of expansion announcements by Boykin’s Internet Marketing Ninjas, including the acquisitions of Cre8asiteforums, the Developer Shed Network, and the addition of top SEOs Kris Jones, Kim Krause Berg, and Ann Smarty to the company’s executive staff.
SEW spoke to Chris Labatt-Simon at PubCon about the news. Labatt-Simon is Chief Innovation Ninja, and he manages mergers and acquisitions for IM Ninjas. He said, “The acquisition came about because Brett doesn’t have as much time to run the forums these days and so Jim offered to take them on. From Jim’s point of view this acquisition is really just about giving back to the community that helped get him to where he is today. At the most we might put a discreet powered by logo to signify the change in ownership, but we’re certainly not going to plaster the forums with ads for our company.”
In a post on his blog, Boykin shared the events that led to the acquisition:
“About 4 months ago I wrote to Brett stating that I’d like to help with the social media campaign for WMW. I felt that if the forums could be tied to places like facebook and twitter, and if the WMW social accounts were more utilized, that WMW could be made an even better community. A few days later I got a response from Brett, basically asking me if I’d be interested in talking about possibly buying WMW so Brett could focus his energies on Pubcon and other conference related activities….it wasn’t the response that I was expecting….in fact, it really threw me for a loop.
For his part, Tabke said in the official announcement, “Jim and Internet Marketing Ninjas is the ideal match for WebmasterWorld. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation than a long-time member acquiring WebmasterWorld.” Tabke also said he has every confidence that Boykin and his staff will give WebmasterWorld the resources and commitment needed to keep the community strong for many years to come.
Tabke will stay on at WebmasterWorld as an administrator. Boykin’s focus, as described in his announcement, will be to grow the community and social presence, with changes recommended and approved by the community.
Please join us in congratulating Brett and Jim on the deal!