SSC bought out by Red Gate… Now what?

One of the highlights of my weekday mornings is reading the editorial by Steve Jones of SQLServerCentral.com.  However, this past Tuesday’s newsletter was particularly newsworthy: Steve announced the sale of the SQLServerCentral.com site to Red Gate software, a UK-based manufacturer of SQL Server tools.

Though the timing came as a surprise, I have to say that the sale did not.  The three founders of this community had recently opened a new training facility in Florida which seems to be doing very well.  Further, there had been a noticable shift toward revenue generation on the site during the past few months, and I wondered if SSC was being primed for a sale.

I am a longtime member of SSC, and I have much respect for the founders of this community.  I was relieved to read that Steve Jones will continue on as editor of the site, including the publication of his daily editorial as usual.  The company line at Red Gate is that the site will continue as usual, with Steve having control over the content.

As much affection as I have for this site, I will confess a great deal of skepticism over the future of SSC after the sale.  I am suspicious of the motives of any software company in Red Gate’s position who would buy what is arguably the most active SQL Server community site at the same time that they announce an initiative to greatly increase company revenue.  Further, a visit to www.simple-talk.com, another venue owned by Red Gate, reveals that community to be very loyal to only Red Gate tools.

I’m not a naysayer or a pessimist; I believe it is possible for SSC to continue to be the great site it has always been.  This community is my favorite site on the ‘Net, and I sincerely hope that it continues to be business as usual there.  Only time will tell.