There have been two significant announcements in the AMS world in the past several weeks.
First, Timberlake Software was acquired by Naylor just one day before last month’s ASAE Technology Conference. I had a chance to talk with Timberlake’s CEO, Brian Choate, briefly at the Tech Conference, and he’s very excited about what this acquisition will mean for Timberlake. As I’ve written before, I’m typically skeptical of these types of acquisitions, but this one is a bit different in that Naylor has a long history in the association market, including acquiring Boxwood Technologies last year. To me, this isn’t the same as an outside VC or private equity company acquiring Timberlake. As always, time will tell how successful this will be.
Second, YourMembership announced the acquisition of Digital Ignite’s learning management system. This comes after YM acquired affiniscape a couple years back and JobTarget fairly recently. Many of my clients have or are exploring LMS packages, and more associations are exploring online learning, so this acquisition certainly makes sense and should be a nice addition for YM’s current and future clients.
Finally, I’m hearing a lot of rumbling about other acquisitions in process or in discussion, so don’t be surprised if you see more announcements in the coming months. 2015 looks to be a very active year for AMS companies.