Purchase of Hotlizard

So what does it mean? Personally I'm always a little uncomforable with companies in the recruitment space buying up providers of a service like this. For a few reasons, firstly, it's not their core market so why are they doing it? The second point is an answer to the first question... Why would you buy something like that? Well, the only real reason for buying a job board software provider, particularly one that specilises in (very good) bespoke design is to see what the competition have and beat them at their own game. I know people with boards in development by HL who are, to say the least, extremely unhappy with the situation and who are worried that a key competitor now knows exactly what innovation they had planned at launch and they can now benefit from the dev work done by HL on behalf of the client and, to some extent neutralise the impact of the innovation.
Can anyone blame Adele and Chris, no, of course not, they have a great business and they sold at a trying time and, I would imagine, got a fair price. I wonder how many people will now beat down their door for a new site knowing that Robbie and his brother are on the board though?
It's a similar situation to what killed off Conkers when DMGT bought it and made it part of the jobsite group, avoiding that again with the purchase of Broadbean will be a tough one for DMGT to manage.
In all it will be interesting to see how HL and AMG package the new arrangement and how they position HL going forward, I really hope there is some really clear distinction between HL and AMG and it allows HL to continue doing the work they have done so well and possibly offer them more resources to be a bigger and better brand.