Quote - > Quote - DAZ didn't have to bail out PP in 2005. There was literally no business case to justify it save for preserving diversity within Poserdom.

No disrespect intended, but "preserving diversity within Poserdom"? :) lol Oh yeah that's why they bought it.  It must be on the Daz mission statement. "Preserving diveristy within Poserdom". Seriously ....

None taken - I was being semi-facetious. ;) Point was, they had no real business case for doing it. Even for sucking in merchants and products, while PPros has a very decent pile of stuff, the majority of it wouldn't have made it into the DAZ store, else it would've already been there. > Quote - Of course there was a very good business case to justify it. They has sought to purchase it once before with reason then as well.

It is true they talked with Mehndi and Russell in an attempt to purchase it in early 2002. But - that was before DAZ built their own forums. I was approached about helping them build those (and you were physically present for that one). Those fora have grown nicely, to the point that by 2005, DAZ' fora were more active than PPros'. QED: By 2005, PPros had nothing that DAZ really needed. > Quote - Poser Pros sold for less than a used car so it was a hard bargain to pass up.

True, relatively speaking. Mehndi was the one who had brought things to that point, and they would've lost their investment entirely w/o the bailout. That said, price means bupkis if the investment brings you nothing of note... It was like buying a Ferrari that's missing an engine, transmission, and half its body panels... it would cost you more to reconstruct than the thing would be worth whole. > Quote - Poser Pros was bought, not as a charitable rescue attempt, but as a smart business decision to replace the Loft, while preserving someplace to send products that might not have passes acceptance into Premier, while still allowing money to be made if they sold. Also it was a cheap way to aquire a dominant Poser domain and good PR. A win win situation.

If that were true, then why did DAZ wait three years before bothering to bring 'em into the official fold? 3 years is a very, very long time on the Internet clock. They got their investment back, yes - just like any other business transaction. But - it's not much of a business case to do so w/ a store that did less traffic than RDNA. Sure - it creates a 'secondary' store, but in the three years since, how much effort did DAZ put into it on their part? (Answer: little to none, considering that it was run by its own separate staff and store changes were next to nil). Now for the trifecta: What would've stopped DAZ from merely letting PPros die and merely inviting all merchies to participate into internally-built stores of the same purpose? It would've been cheaper than all the domain and DB shifting... > Quote - Saying the forums were unaltered isn't really accurate is it?

It is perfectly accurate. PPros ran itself this whole time, and remained editorially independent - ask Guarie if you'd like. Knowing both styles of moderation, I can say for certain that a place like the 'Coop would not (and IMHO will not) exist in DAZ-run fora. > Quote - On a side note. I am not familiar with the acronym DDU. Sorry to sound daft, but what is it?

"Digital Designs Unlimited" (a small store ;) ). /P