From the official Press Release:
WPPassion announced today it has agreed to purchase WPSocial’s and its assets including all products and the wpsocial.com web site. “We are excited to add the WPSocial product suite to our portfolio of WordPress related products and services”, said Mark Ketzler of WPPassion. “WPSocial has created a revolutionary platform of social media aware WordPress plugins and themes that will enhance our offerings to bloggers, affiliate marketers and ecommerce entrepreneurs. We look forward to working with WPSocial’s customers to expand the integrated products and services available to them and continue the high level of support and updates to which they have become accustomed.”
WPSocial was acquired by WPPassion, INC. on September 15, 2014 and has been going through the transition and transmission of its assets over the last month. While Daniel Waser and I (Mike Johnson) had proudly built this company up over the last 3 years, it became evident that Daniel would not be able to continue on with the site due to serious health reasons. Therefore, the site and all its assets have been sold to Mark Ketzler and WPPassion, INC.
What does this mean to the current and future customers of WPSocial? It means the level of service and quality are going to continue to improve and get even better than they already are. Your current purchases are safe and nothing has changed in that manner. Mark has brought on new developers and is dedicated to producing a lot more powerful WordPress plugins and improving upon the products which are staples of WPSocial as well. The future is bright for everyone here at WPSocial.
While we are sad to leave this great company we have built, we leave confident that Mark and WPPassion will continue to make WPSocial a powerful presence in the WordPress Plugin market and will take care of you, the customer better than ever before.
Thanks to everyone who has made WPSocial a success. Your commitment is truly appreciated.
Mike Johnson
All the best Mike and Dan. Appreciate you guys
revtrev I appreciate it. Thanks!
Wow wasn’t expecting that, and very sad to see Mike and Dan go. Really hope Dan is able to recover from his health issues.
Mike has always looked after me from day one, WPPassion have a lot to live up to, but I’m sure they will.
On that subject, just did a quick Google for WPPassion Inc and can’t find any website or products, care to share what you have released in the past please?
Thanks for letting us know Mike. You guys did an awesome job. Hope Mark & team deliver the same services as you guys did. Wishing you guys the best of luck on your future endeavors.
Faruk Barber
Hi, good news for you guys but ima a worried about open tickets. I even cannot find any website like wppasion.com I think you should inform clients whats goint to happen with all open tickets. My worry is that they wil not resolved. But I hope they will 😉 Good luck with your health Daniel.
First off, I wish Daniel all the best in overcoming his health issues, and Mike with any projects in the future. With regard to this announcement, can you please provide more details on WP Passion and Mark Ketzler, in particular their website address which I could not find. Furthermore, will this membership site remain as is, or be incorporated into the new owner’s site? What is going to happen to the products and their functionality now and in the near future?
I own WP Social SEO Pro and WP Social Traffic Blaster, which I have not currently activated on any site, but was going to.
By the way Mike, if you are starting up a new email list I would love to join you in any new adventures you may have upcoming.
Hi Mike, I love and have bought many of your products over the last few years, sorry to hear of Daniels health issues, and that you are no longer WP Social….
Always a concern for existing customers when a company is bought out, I hope Mark and WPPassion will continue creating the kind of quality products and still have the awesome level of customer service that we have enjoyed from yourself, you set the bar high Mike.
Good luck to Mark with the new venture, get well soon Dan and good luck to you too Mike,
Many thanks, Tim
Guys I would like to recommend an idea.
When the new guys come in it will take time for them to get the grips of this power house theme/plugin. Also there are many experts as well as newbies using this theme.
If its OK with Mike I would like to start a private Facebook group just for WPSocial customers, so we can help each other learn and grow our businesses. Sometimes its just easier to ask a fellow user than to go through support.
If you guys think its a good idea then reply with a yes to this comment
sad news Mike and Dan are not longer WPSocial 🙁 hope Dan will overcome his health problems! All the best guys and thank you for creating such amazing plugins! Let`s hope WPPassion will continue
we hope to cure his health problems!wp SEO booster plugin helped to me thousand of dollars.
It is very sad to see both of you go. I believe I have every plugin and theme that you guys offer. I hope that the new owners keep up with the updates and support that you guys have done.
WealthPro Yes, absolutely
WealthPro Great idea in principal, however I think it would be preferable to actually learn what plans the new owners have (as a matter of urgency) …. because perhaps they already have a member forum or private FB group set up.
Thanks everyone for your kind words. As I said in the post above, as of right now there are no changes to your products or your accounts here at WPSocial. Mark has big plans and is intent on making the site here and product offerings even better. I am sure he will.
While neither Daniel or I wanted to leave WPSocial, but after a lot of consideration and going over multiple courses of action, we decided that this was in the best interests of you the customer, Daniel, and myself.
Daniel will have hip replacement surgery on October 20th and will go through a grueling rehab afterwards. I am going to continue working on 2 very big projects I have had ongoing for quite some time. I sell my own brand of products on Amazon.com (from my time with Amazing Selling Machine co-owner Jason Katzenback) and I also run a small Digital Marketing Agency here in my home town of York, PA. I am considering opening a training site to help small businesses as well as doing plugin reviews and how to articles at my site Plugins.net which I recently started working on.
I wish everyone here the best of luck with WPSocial and with your future endeavors.
Thanks.
…and at the same time the domain wppassion.com registered to Mark Ketzler seems to be for sale http://wa-com.com/wppassion.com It seems like the plans for WPPassion is beyond the WPPassion name…
Anyway, I have appreciated the knowledge and work Daniel and Mike has put into the products of WPSocial. Hope the future is bright for the future of WPSocial, and a special thought for Daniel for the time ahead. Get well soon… 🙂
Wish you and Daniel the best Mike! I just sincerely hope WP Social doesn’t go the way that Profit FM (aka Profit Marketer went!
These are bad news. Hopefully this is not the start of the end! I’ve seen this a lot of times with other wp products. Another lifetime license with a premature end? ;-(
MikeJohnson Don’t you think your announcement and replies lack the essential information that your (former) customers deserve? That is, the new owner and his company are nowhere to be found. Like others, I was unable to find a website for WPPassion, nor could I find the person behind this mysterious company. Why have you not done a joint statement, or introduced the new owner with full details, so that people can actually see for themselves who the new owner is and what credentials he has?
I already asked these questions in a previous post here, but you decided to sweep it under the carpet.
Anyhow, perhaps the concern stems from the fact that this new owner’s company was only formed less than a week prior to the purchase of WPSocial, hiding behind the curtains of a Delaware Corp.
http://www.bizapedia.com/business-services.aspx is a Delaware Corporation filed on September 9, 2014. The company’s File Number is listed ashttp://www.bizapedia.com/business-services.aspx.
bitfoxx I hope not, but I have also seen this many times. The current versions remains unsupported, while everything gets rebranded under a new name to squeeze the extra bucks out of the excisting customers. Let’s pray that the new owners at WPPassion honor the money and commitment spent by it’s current customers into the products, just like Mike & Daniel at WPSocial would have done if they had continued. If the new owners at WPPassion honor the licenses and continues the products, I do look forward to the continuing. As Mike said, they have plans to put more resources behind the products and for further improvements.
A comment from the new owners of WPPassion would be appreciated…
Rollie The website wppassion.com is listed for sale http://wa-com.com/wppassion.com so they might plan to continue under the WPSocial brand name…
Arnfinn Nilsen I am aware of that but there is also no archived history for any website hosted under that domain. Not much of a “passion” for WP in my book (lol).
The real scandal is that this official announcement is nowhere good enough.
Customers should not have to second guess who the new owner is and what track record they have.
MikeJohnson includes into his announcement their statement “We are excited to add the WPSocial product suite to our portfolio of WordPress related products and services”, said Mark Ketzler of WPPassion. “ …but with no links, no website, no way to see what THEIR current porfolio of WP related products and serivces are, no contact details of the new owner.
Instead….people start investigating and find a domain for sale with no history, no Google results for someone by the name Mark Ketzler in conjunction with WPPassion or WordPress.
Yet Mike Johnson’s claim that “Mark has big plans and is intent on making the site here and product offerings even better. I am sure he will.” —– well, having big PLANS and INTEND is one thing, ‘seeing is believing’ another. That’s what is lacking here, that’s all I am saying.
Mark Ketzler is now registered as the new owner of WPSocial.
http://www.ubertools.co.uk/www/wpsocial.com
All I know is, I am a lifetime member of Mike’s former venture, Profit FM and it became a train wreck when the infamous Gary Prenderghast took over. I am also a lifetime member here as well. My fear is that the flagship plugins phase out slowly and replaced with other crap plugins or pirated plugins. Not ONE plugin that started at Profit FM is currently supported or available.
I had built my online business around those plugins, and then had to scramble to purchase replacements and perform damage control. If the same happens here, my online business will be devastated. There are a lot of moving parts to my blogs/stores and they all use WP Social products and Woo products as an anchor.
And yes, a joint announcement would have been nice and not shrouded a cloak of doubt over this venture.
Well said…
Rollie MikeJohnson As I stated elsewhere; A statement and status report from the new owners WPPassion/Mark Ketzler would be needed and highly appreciated at this point.
Open letter to the new owner: Mark Ketzler
As the new owner of this site: where are you in this discussion? Please reply to ll the questions and fears. I also have a lifetime membership and want to know the plans of the new ownership. Not from the seller but from the buyer…
This must be a PR nightmare for you but sitting still does not calm down the storm of criticism how communication is.
Please reply or I want my money back…
Arnfinn Nilsen Rollie MikeJohnson Believe me guys, there is nothing to worry about here. The costs associated with this buyout ensure that Mark is very serious about WPSocial and continuing its progress. While it might not seem like a big thing to you, completing the transition of this business to a new owner takes quite a bit of time and this has been going on for the last month. As with any transition like this, there will be a lull, then things will pick up.
Mark will be posting here shortly and I can assure you all your questions will be answered and there is nothing to worry about. This was a high level, professional transaction and not a fly by night deal.
MikeJohnson Thanks for the update Mike. Much appreciated 🙂
Hi Mark Ketzler here.
First of all I am nothing but available for questions or specific issues at: Metzler@wpsocial.com
As far as statements of intent:
1) lifetime users are just that. I will always honor those historic relationships, you are the most valuable assets of wpsocial.
2) All products will be supported and enhanced they are the second most valuable assets.
I look forward to our mutually beneficial relationship and success. emaill me if you have concerns or suggestion
. Please stay tuned.
markketzler Hi Mark. First of all I want to welcome you as the new chief in charge. Good you dropped in and cleared a couple of points out. 🙂
Even though Mike knows you and gives you a thumbs up, you do have a relatively unknown name and history as far as we the WPSocial customers know. Many of us has a customer history with Mike that extends furter back in time than WPSocial. We have been used to a very good customer support and information flow along the way.
As a new owner of the WPSocial site and products, I know you have much to catch up to regarding the current status, and you probably have more than enough on your mind regarding planning and implementation for the continuing, but it would be nice if you in the coming weeks would let us know you and your plans a little bit better… 🙂
Arnfinn Nilsen
The domain wppassion is not for sale. That is the latest of scams floating around the net – the “selling” of domains you do not own.
Mark Ketzler
Arnfinn Nilsen markketzler thanks and I will update the community as quickly as quality information is availability. As for my background … Over 20 years of software industry background. Including sales and technical suppor to General Managert at Forune 500 companies 3 startups as CEO. This is not new territory for me. Yes wppassion inc. was formed to acquire wpsocial. Delaware corps. have nothing to do with hiding (that would be offshore corps.) and any suspended domains are intentionally not renewed.
Comments consolidated replies not all directed at you of course …
Best,
markketzler Thanks for the clarification. 🙂
Hi guys,
no answer from support (urgent ticket, 4 days) nor Mark Ketzler (polite email , 2 days). Anyone else here having any comeback from them?
When I read the glowing reports on here about great support, I was scratching my head.
I am using Social Deals Engine to RUN A BUSINESS, this is no good. This always happens, then I get profuse apologies and the mention of health issues. I’m sorry, but I have spent 2 full days in hospital this week myself and I still answered my emails. And there’s just me here.
Anyone found any alternatives to SDE, I think I might have. It’s not looking good here.
I have been very patient until now, but when you are given specific timescales for something and then…nothing, you tend to feel that maybe it’s better to cut your losses and run.
Come on WP Social, pull it out of the bag at the last minute.
Philip.
Facebook private group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WPSocialcustomers/
PhilipMartin Philip I have three engineers doing tickets. Yours was not a new ticket but one that predates there start, perhaps there was a transition issue but I show no open ticket for you. I alsi have no email from you. Please use my alternate email address wppassion@gmail.com.
We stil have a ticket open and i’ve been in communication, but a week before the ‘takeover’ all communication stopped. So what’s the actual status of our support ticket? I think it must be about 6 weeks now and we’re still no closer to a solution, which is why we disabled the plugin again. No use in using it when it doesn’t work as promised. Also, we we’re to get a detailed review document to submit to Facebook regarding the Facebook connect apps, but i’ve still not seen this which means our Facebook connection was down anyway.
Kind regards,
Bert
BertBeukema can you send me your ticket number or issue details via email:
wppassion@gmail.com
When i found the social review engine plugin i was sure it was the solution we had been looking for and purchased without a second thought. Im still hopeful i can work with it, but without any support from the developers im not sure ill be able to work through the issues i currently have.
Submitted my first support ticket over 10 days ago and still not a single response from anyone, has the support always been that slack here or is this caused by the recent sale of the company?
I too am having problems setting up Facebook for the reviews. As it stands, every review left by every user on my website via Facebook does so using my own personal Facebook account, not the actual users account. Because of this problem i had to disable Facebook from the reviews, leaving reviews via Facebook was the initial reason for the purchase and without it i’m not sure ill need or want the plugin on my website.
@http://www.livefyre.com/profile/63300399/ – what Facebook problem did you have? Did you get it fixed? If its the same issue i mentioned above, if the same please share the solution if you have one. Thanks.
If anyone else has had the same problem as me and fixed it please get in touch. Thanks guys,