WebHost Automation Ltd sold to SWSoft (Parallels)

 Well, that is my second business sold.. and it was very hard to let it go. Helm has been dominating my life for the last five and half years, but chosing to sell to SWSoft (Parallels) was actually quite a simple choice.

The reason for the sale was straight forward. WHA is too small to take Helm to the next levels that we want it to go. Now that Helm 4 has the stability, and a proven architecture, we know that it needs even more energy and resources in order to push the platform to meet the demands of not only hosts, but of enterprises as well. There are SO MANY things that the Helm platform can do; directions it can take, and complex environments that it could ultimately manage, but WHA wouldn't have been able to conquer any significant slice of this action within the timescales we wanted to see.

The fact is that Helm needs a much larger established firm to push it out quickly, and the choice is taken very carefully too. So this just leaves us with a final question.. Why SWSoft (Parallels)?

Again, the answer to this is simple. The owners of both WHA and SWSoft have known each other for a long time. We both understand each other, and importantly, know what are visions are. The reason the ownership falls on SWSoft rather than any other large corporation, is because our goals are similar. I know that with Helm being in SWSofts hands, that it will go in the directions I have wanted it to go.

Unfortunately I'm not retired on some sandy beach on my own island, sipping cocktails.. Instead I'm still working on Helm 4, but now it has a bigger sales force and access to a much larger QA, support and development team too.

OpenHosting (the first business sold) is doing VERY well after the sale. It's getting close to being one of the biggest independant hosts in the UK at the moment! That's a long way on since Mark and I let it go :)

I've no doubt that Helm will gain the same sort of immense growth with SwSoft (Parallels). Viva Helm!!


Business
Thu, 20 Dec 2007 10:47