Rich has the skinny on Digium acquiring Sokol & Associates. Sokol & Associates runs the popular Astricon tradeshow and Asterisk IP-PBX training programs. Interesting how Digium, an open-source hardware and software company is now technically a tradeshow company and an Asterisk training company.Rich's analysis is, "By purchasing a well-known training company in the Asterisk space, Digium should be able to grow revenue nicely. This move positions Digium as a major training powerhouse." While I agree with Rich, Digium just has to be careful not to "eat its own" partners by becoming a competitor to them. Many companies have made the mistake of seeing how successful their partners are and then decide to move in on the action leaving their partners high-and-dry.
Update:
I came across Garrett Smith's commentary on this acquisition. He alluded to the fact that my cautionary tale may have something to do with the fact that TMC is in the tradeshow biz. Specifically he said, "probably because the comment came from someone who works for a competing trade show". Honestly, it had nothing to do with that.
As I said to Garrett via email, "To be clear, I wasn’t attacking Digium for moving into the conference space of which TMC is a part of. TMC’s ITEXPO is much larger than Astricon and I don’t see them as competitive. I don’t think anyone does."
It was just a warning since it now would appear they’ve now entered “acquisition phase” and should they start acquiring companies in the Asterisk space they could start competing with their current partners and really tick people off.
Partners that currently work with Digium could all of a sudden find themselves as direct competitors. I'm not saying this is going to happen. Again, my point was that Digium just has to be careful. They have a very loyal community and I'd hate to see that community turn on them.
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