General Chat

Genes reunited is part of the Brightsolid family.

DC Thomson, the Dundee-based publisher, is reorganising its online subsidiary, brightsolid. I wonder if this will mean that we will see more changes on GR site.

It is to split the genealogy division from online technology, including cloud computing.

DC Thomson has hired Annelies van den Belt as chief executive of brightsolid online publishing (BSOP). She has been chief executive at SUP, a Russian digital publisher, having previously worked for the Telegraph Media Group and News International, and having overseen the launch of ITV.com.

BSOP owns some of the biggest genealogy sites in Europe, including findmypast.co.uk, genesreunited.co.uk and Friends Reunited. It has 18m registered users.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-23893114

Thanks for this thread, OFG. 18m registered users (hmmm!). At least they don't insult those users by calling them "customers"

I do hope they appoint a technical boffin who has some idea about customer involvement and customer support. Someone who revisits what GR have "accomplished" over last couple of years, reverses a bit and then sticks it in "forward gear".

Time will tell.....and tell and tell and tell :-D ;-) as I get the Error message 4 times to post this post :-P

D C Thompson are a pretty ruthless company who have always done whatever it takes to keep the group alive e.g. the recent axing of "The Dandy".

BrightSolid are essentially a business services group tightly tied into Microsoft technology. That makes sense for their core business but is one of the reasons for the less than stellar performance of all of the genealogy products including GRu.

GRu has already hired a top CRM manager, Andrew -, about two years ago. He does not seem to have made a lot of progress.

It does not take a top penguin to work out that selling essentially the same product twice is not the most cost effective plan.

Some sort of GRu/FMP merger merger looks very much on the cards.

RolloTheRed - I totally agree with your comment that "Some sort of GRu/FMP merger merger looks very much on the cards"

I hinted at that, quite some time back, from what I picked out of the bones of a discussion I had with a friend who works for one of the Brightsolid satellites ;-)

No doubt time will tell so we will need to wait and see what comes out in the wash.

what it will mean is

less staff and higher subs for us to pay :-0 :-0

HONEST I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS AND
IMPLICATIONS
PLAIN ENGLISH PLEASE

I think it means.................... SNAFU :-D

What is SN please Scozz :-D

Probably accounts for why Genes take absolutely no notice of complaints about the site. :-0

Island - Situation Normal

If you want to rob people it is easier with a smile.

Works for me

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/08/big-changes-announced-at-brightsolid-and-findmypast.html

Big Changes Announced at brightsolid and FindMyPast

I've long been of the opinion that a merging of GR and fmp is very possible, and possibly even intended from the beginning.

They have to convince the powers that be that GR is not viable, because of an assurance previously given that the two sites would be kept separate

brightsolid were referred to the Competition Commission (they used to be known as the Monopolies and Mergers Commission) by the Office of Fair Trading when they took over Friends Reunited (et al) back in 2009.

The concern back then was that "The proposed acquisition would see the three main providers of online genealogy services reduced to two, and we are concerned this could lead to a reduction in choice or service for consumers. We are therefore referring the merger to the Competition Commission for a fuller inquiry".

When the decision about the acquisition was announced in 2010, the Competition Commission said in its report that it did not believe that there would be a substantial lessening of competition (SLC) as a result of the merger.

Its report concluded...

"We conclude:
(a) Given the differentiation in the product offerings of Genes and FMP, the limited overlap between them and the other strong constraints on prices that would remain irrespective of the merger, there is currently at most only a limited degree of competitive constraint between Genes and FMP; nor is that competitive constraint between the two parties expected to have increased in the absence of the merger. The unilateral effects of the merger may not, therefore, be expected to result in an SLC (paragraph 6.37).
(b) There is no reason to expect coordinated effects to result from the merger (paragraph 6.47).
(c) We do not expect the merger to give rise to any market foreclosure that would reduce competition between retailers of online genealogy services by any effects on the supply of genealogical data to those retailers (paragraph 6.65).
We therefore see no reason to expect any price increases or other deterioration in product offering to occur as a result of the merger. There is also the potential for the merger to have pro-competitive effects on prices (paragraph 6.27), but our conclusion is not (and does not need to be) based on any expectation that the merger would necessarily result in price reductions. We have also noted the scope for new entry into the supply of online genealogy services (paragraph 6.78).
7.2 We therefore conclude that the merger may not be expected to result in an SLC."

(SLC - substantial lessening of competition)

According to the current news releases, "Annelies van den Belt, the former head of ITV.com, has been hired to head Brightsolid Online Publishing (BSOP) and will head findmypast.co.uk and genesreunited.co.uk, two of the largest genealogy businesses in Europe, and will also manage the findmypast brand in the US market."

Now, who owned Friends Reunited (and thus GR) before brightsolid?

http://friendsreunitedpress.wordpress.com/history/

http://friendsreunitedpress.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/brightsolid-acquires-friends-reunited/

Rollo

ITV

they bought it from the original developers of FR, GR, and 3 other sites in 2007.