At some point in Q2 SolarWinds MSP will be fading into the past, as they will be under going a brand change to update their name to N-Able. Although this rebranding is a new change for SolarWinds they are essentially resurrecting the N-able name as they acquired N-able nearly 8 years ago. What we know today is that SolarWinds is existing as a wholly owned subsidiary, and there is no official split date. Dave Sobel joins us to share his perspective on the name change and branding updates.
Video Transcription
Dave Sobel 0:44 No, he got acquired in 13. And good for him. You know, you’re always I’m always celebrate story of an entrepreneur exits that way.
Harry Brelsford 0:50 Yeah, exactly. So paint the landscape. What’s going on with the name change the rebranding, What say you?
Dave Sobel 0:58 Well, I mean, so let’s separate out the name change from the strategic move, obviously, so that they are going back out on their own, they believe they believe that they will get the ability to control their own destiny, I believe it’s going to be much more about who they’re going to be acquired, they can now do more acquisitions on their own, they’re gonna raise the money to do so. This also means that they can do smaller deals when compared to what solar winds corporate the parent entity was doing. I’m going to free so in full disclosure, I’m a shareholder and SolarWinds. So as the as a divest, I will you know, I am a shareholder. I want to recognize the sort of the past of a name, but I tell you of all the things to do to dust off a 20 year old name as your relaunch just feels like the worst marketing decision of all time.
Harry Brelsford 1:47 So like, here’s what I got my attention.
Dave Sobel 1:49 Yeah, that might blow the old dust off an old name. Just to remind us the core technologies are 20 years old. That’s not how you go forth into a new era by calling back to 20 years ago, like I just don’t buy it. If you think about rebrand names, like you know, Bell Atlantic, rebranding is Verizon, like, like making up names or companies that spin off, they always want to embrace a new identity, to talk about being forward thinking. So I just, from my perspective, as a branding guy who thinks about that, I’m like, that’s the one choice literally the one choice. That was a bad one you could have made? Yeah, and I don’t I don’t understand why you’re calling back to that. It just seems bad. I get it from like, the business execution. Like I get all those moves and, and fine. I’m waiting for them to do something that I get interested by. But from a marketing perspective, I’ve just what a waste.
Harry Brelsford 2:46 It got my attention. And I’m trying to think of when I’ve seen that in our space before. I don’t believe I have. I mean,you know, perhaps because it’s not a unique Good idea, but a unique bad one. Yeah, yeah. it you know, on a on a positive rebranding, you may recall, boy, I remember the magazine was found com magazine owned by the group out of Phoenix, I think has Virgo publishing and fast forward the movie, they’re now channel partners, they got acquired by informa um, that was a good rebranding because we went to a couple of their shows when they were still phone.com. A gentleman named Mike Saxby was kind of our main guy over there. Super good guy. Right. And we were exploring voice as they called it then. Right. And, but that that bugged me, that’s, you know, dude, phone, I mean, really, and so they did the right thing. You see what I’m trying to say that
Dave Sobel 3:50 every brandings are great opportunity, like this is your opportunity to to deliver a new message and you have to think more about what your what your potential prospects which your existing customers are going to walk away from, what is the impression that you want to give and in particular, that’s often times why you embrace a new or a create a word or you go in some direction, because you want to define that. Their message is literally we want it to be defined by the past. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I have heard your message loud and clear. You would like to be defined by the past. Okay.
Harry Brelsford 4:29 Yeah, God bless you. Is there an effective date for this this this now with hearing you know that the word on the street that this is not I can type that in and be resolved to the website thing.
Dave Sobel 4:41 So the obviously they are existing as a wholly owned subsidiary of SolarWinds right now. That is they are prating under the single night we have no date. We have no particular date in terms of when they go. They officially split and are traded on the on the stock market so we don’t have a date from that that is to be expected. They are still going through the due diligence there is a whole process to be done with that. I would anticipate based on their indications it’s going to happen this quarter that seems to be that seems to be they’re they’re pushing their desires to make it happen this quarter functionally like let’s let’s be also fair functionally for most MSP and IP services partners, functionally, this is nothing for them to to worry about. They are functionally already a distinct entity, they have been operating in that way for a period of time. You know, it’s the same products. So, you know, functionally, this actually isn’t that big a deal. from day to day operations perspective, it really is just a Do you believe they will execute on the growth strategy that they’re putting forth?
Harry Brelsford 5:42 Yeah, yeah. Well, I sure appreciate your perspective. We’ll, we’ll catch you on the flip side, where can people hear your podcasts and learn more about you? I just want to get that plug in.
Dave Sobel 5:52 Well, I appreciate that. You look for the business of tech. It’s available on all your favorite pod catchers on Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, and you can find everything about what I do on businessof.tech. That’s the website, as well as available on YouTube with the link right there.
Harry Brelsford 6:08 ll right, my friend. Take care. Thanks for having me.
