--- title: "Daily Buzz: Drupal’s Big Buyout" id: "48107" type: "post" slug: "daily-buzz-drupals-big-buyout" published_at: "2019-09-30T17:00:02+00:00" modified_at: "2026-03-17T02:12:23+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2019/09/30/daily-buzz-drupals-big-buyout/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2019/09/30/daily-buzz-drupals-big-buyout.md" excerpt: "The company that primarily maintains the Drupal content management system was sold for a billion dollars last week. Also: Facebook looks into making likes less visible." taxonomy_category: - "Marketing / Communications" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "Content Management" - "member acquisition" - "Open Source" - "Technology" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "C-Level" - "Director" - "Executive Team" taxonomy_persona: - "Industry Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Daily Buzz: Drupal’s Big Buyout There was just a big purchase in the world of content management, and there’s a lot to watch out for. [As TechCrunch reported last week (opens in a new tab)](https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/24/vista-equity-partners-buys-acquia-for-1b/) , the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners acquired Acquia, an enterprise services and content management shop, for $1 billion. You might be curious why the acquisition is such a big deal, and the answer is that Acquia is to the content management platform Drupal as Automattic is to WordPress. It’s a big shake-up that promises to affect the shape of the content management space in the coming years. In an interview, Drupal creator Dries Buytaert, who serves as Acquia’s chief technical officer, pledged that the company would maintain its mission to keep growing Drupal and another product Acquia recently acquired, the marketing automation firm Mautic. “We were born out of open source. All of our customers use open source. We give back to open source. It’s part of our DNA. It’s what we do,” [Buytaert told TechCrunch (opens in a new tab)](https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/25/how-founder-and-cto-dries-buytaert-sold-acquia-for-1b/) . “And so making sure that any new investor understood that and was aligned with [it] was critically important, and Vista is very excited about the open-source community around Drupal and Mautic (two open-source projects Acquia is the steward of), and has even agreed to invest more in them.” Nonetheless, [CMSWire notes (opens in a new tab)](https://www.cmswire.com/digital-experience/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-vistas-1-billion-acquia-acquisition/) that there is a potential for turbulence for Drupal, in part because one of Vista Equity Partners’ prior acquisitions, Marketo, was sold off within two years. So if you’re a Drupal shop—and many associations are—there’s much to keep an eye on. ### Something You May Not Like > It’s happening! Really interested to hear how this pans out and if indeed it does improve wellbeing 🙌 [https://t.co/widlqkJNBy (opens in a new tab)](https://t.co/widlqkJNBy) > > — Social Firefly (@So_Firefly) [September 27, 2019 (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/So_Firefly/status/1177543010051088385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) **First, Facebook started experimenting** with the way that likes are displayed [on its sister service Instagram (opens in a new tab)](https://www.cnet.com/news/instagram-is-hiding-likes-you-may-be-happier-in-the-end/) . Now, it appears to be doing the same with the mothership. The idea looks to be a test at this point that’s mostly focused on the Australian market, but the company seems to be thinking that it could change how people use the platform and improve users’ experience. “It really is just taking that number out of the equation, so that people can focus on the quality of their interactions and the quality of the content rather than on the number of likes or reactions,” Facebook spokeswoman Mia Garlick [said in a statement to The Guardian (opens in a new tab)](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/27/facebook-to-hide-number-of-likes-in-trial-aimed-at-improving-users-wellbeing) . While the numbers will still be visible to creators, they won’t be shown to the public—a move that mental health and anti-bullying experts are cheering. ### Other Links of Note **Need a smile?** [This Meetings Today video (opens in a new tab)](https://www.meetingstoday.com/video/video-detail-2013/articleid/33916/title/smiling-exercise-will-brighten-your-day) shows how smiling can be just the exercise you need at an event. **While Slack is still popular** with startups, Microsoft Teams is winning over larger companies, [according to Recode (opens in a new tab)](https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/9/19/20874094/slack-startups-microsoft-kruze-etr-charts) . **In the middle of a negotiation?** Being nice may not be the best strategy, [according to Harvard Business Review (opens in a new tab)](https://hbr.org/2019/09/research-being-nice-in-a-negotiation-can-backfire) . (Gábor Hojtsy/Flickr) [Ernie Smith](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. 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