Conversation With Mike Jones, Userplane
My old friend, Mike Jones, the CEO and founder of Userplane, called me up today and explained the ins and outs of the company's acquisition by AOL.
First of all, I didn't even try to pry valuation of the deal out of Mike. If it turns out to be material to AOL or Time-Warner, we'll find out in due course. Otherwise, no one will say a thing, so why even ask?
So, given that Userplane was a profitably growing company, why lose control and align with AOL, a possibly fading media giant? Mike's attitude is that AOL management, from Jonathan Miller and Tina Sharkey down, knows they need to make serious strides to turn around what is a household name into a dynamic and modern brand. As a result, Userplane is going to continue on with a tremendous degree of automony -- separate offices, speparate software development plans -- perhaps as a living example of what other small companies could expect if they become part of the new AOL. And perhaps as a lead example of how external software can be closely integrated into AOL's plans -- like Open AIM -- without having to be dreamed up by a corporate team at AOL headquarters.
The immediate synergies make the deal an obvious one. Userplane is the independent leader in website instant messaging, especially video, and is moving a lot of ads based on its revolutionary model, where websites get the software licences free while Userplane takes the ad revenue. That lines up perfectly with AOL's new model. And of course, interoperability with AIM is a good fit for both Userplane's users and AOL. A true network efficiency, where everyone benefits -- except for AOL's competitors.
Mike pointed out that Millers' recent moves -- going open and dropping the closed AOL service (which I had recommended only a few weeks before it happened, by the way: see Jonathan Miller Must Be Reading My Blog) -- suggests a truly new approach for the company. Acquiring companies like Weblogsinc and Userplane, and letting the leaders of those companies -- like Jason Calacanis and Mike Jones -- take a serious role in AOL's reanimation and renewal is a smart play.
Mike also mentioned that years ago, I think at one of the Instant Messaging Planet conferences, I pointed out that the endgame for Userplane was a acquisition by AOL -- an obvious move. It just took five years or so for it to look obvious to AOL.
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