Vive Six Apart!

The formal announcement:

Six Apart, éditeur américain d'outils de publication de weblogs, vient d'acquérir son partenaire francais Ublog. (Six Apart, American weblog tool maker, has just acquired its French partner Ublog.)

Loïc and his team have been acting as our exclusive agent in Europe for the past six or so months bringing the TypePad service and Movable Type to the European market. Today we announced the formation of Six Apart EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) a subsidiary formed through the acquisition of Ublog.

Now, the informal, interesting, background on the deal:

Around November of last year we began speaking to Loïc (who had been introduced to us by Joi) about working together to bring our products to the European market. I was hesitant to proceed since I felt that a small company like Six Apart should wait longer before branching out to another continent (after all, we already knew that we'd have Six Apart KK). When I met Loïc, I sat stone-faced through the meeting since I tend to, well, sit stone-face during meetings. Loïc asked us about our plans and I was very reluctant to reveal anything about the company. I like to process initial meetings before becoming too friendly or talkative and this meeting was no exception.

During the meeting, though, we were very impressed by his drive and his background. Loïc and his wife Geraldine have been together since they were teenagers (similar to Ben and myself) and they had founded companies together and worked together. Those who are in this special club of husband and wife teams know that if a marriage can get through the stress of working relationships, most other hurdles in marriages are easy.

But more importantly Loïc had a real passion for weblogging. Even though he hadn't been blogging for long, he had thrown himself into the space. And even though we tended to disagree on some things about blogging (blogging changing the world and journalism versus weblogging as a vehicle for communication between small groups), I realized that our differing opinions would only strengthen our relationship.

But I was still reluctant about branching out. The reason we took investments from Neoteny was because we knew that weblogging was not something unique to America. We have always prided ourselves in the localization of our tools. But, to me, Europe just seemed to be so much more overwhelming than Japan. Rightly so, since it's a continent and all.

Over the next couple months Loïc and his team won us over. He's surrounded by incredibly competent people who are a pleasure to work with. But more importantly, as an entrepreneur who has formed and sold his own companies, Loïc's gesture to join Six Apart as a member of the team was significant.

This acquisition is not a quick sale of Ublog to Six Apart. Loïc and the company formerly known as Ublog are joining Six Apart to be a part of what we're all doing.

This was evident while Ben and I were in Paris last week. After a very good meeting with a possible partner, Loïc came back to the office to announce the good news. The general excitement that was expressed was really touching since it showed that we're all one team now.

Every day I say that if Six Apart was to close its doors, I'd be immensely proud by what we accomplished (of course, we have no intention to go out without a fight). Being in Europe surrounded by the Six Apart EMEA team was just one of those highlights that make me feel extremely grateful for all that we've accomplished and the help we've had along the way.

The other wow sort of moment came when I rode on a motorcycle throughout Paris with Olivier, our country manager for France. Despite the fact that my mother wasn't extremely pleased by my risk-taking, I had quite the memorable first motorcycle ride in a particularly wonderful city.

Here's to a great new relationship!

I'll have other news to post later tonight that we're equally excited about -- and these announcements will be joined by a few anecdotes that will help many learn more about the company's evolution and our past year.