Offer to buy
 

Hey all, just wanted to ask your opinions on this. I run a big board (only like 1800 something on big-boards.com, but I digress) and I just had an offer from someone to buy it. They want to maintain the moderators/admin staff but want to buy it from me for an extremely generous price. I'm curious as to whether or not any of you have any experience with this. I would eventually like to either close my board or pass the reigns, but I am curious as to whether any of y'all had done this, had some offer this to you, the like.

I'm considering it quite honestly, because I think that after my wedding I'll eventually want to move on -- pass the ropes, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Moving away from vBulletin? :pirate:
If you think its a good offer for your board ( And your planning on getting rid of it sometime in your life) . I mean check with other people see how much they would offer etc. Ive sold about 2 hiphop forums in the past I didn't want, I think its worth it.

I LOVE vBulletin, haha, it has nothing to do with that. I just think what you said -- getting rid of it sometime in my life -- is the deal. Hrm. Thanks :)

You said you want to move on, and I guess this is the easiest way out, a good price and you're completely done with it...

orban -- yeah, but now it's hard to do! I'm a fool to pass up the offer, but I'm seriously having second thoughts about it. I built it from the ground up so, I dunno, it's harder than I thought. That and now a recent turn is giving me second thoughts about even shutting it down.

Eh, I'll figure it out. Thanks y'all :)

did you sell yet?

The company I work for has bought quite a few forums. Some from people who found that their lives had changed and that they no longer had the time, some from people who were not capable of running a large board, and some who were just no longer interested.

One thing I will say though, is that you should be very weary of signing a contract with a buyer that mentions the existing staff. If the contract says something like "the existing staff will continue to work..." and they get pissed and leave when they find out that the board was sold, you can be held responsible.

I've also had some offers from a company to buy the forum I manage, however we chose not to sell it due to one simple reason: we feel that the forum in not only ours but it also belongs to the users, we fear that after selling, things could change a bit/a lot and all the community could loose. Of course this is also somehow related to how your forum grew.

On the other hand we know that our community could benefit from having dedicated paid professionals to support and develop the forum/a portal, additional features, ...

So it is really up to you to decide.