Active Network Acquires ServiceU

Posted by David Drinnon on Oct 3, 2011 | 11662 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.equipthem.info%2F2011%2F10%2F03%2Factive-network-acquires-serviceu%2FActive+Network+Acquires+ServiceU2011-10-03+21%3A09%3A01David+Drinnonhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.equipthem.info%2F%3Fp%3D1166

The plot thickens today as ServiceU announced their acquisition by Active Network. This marks the third acquisition this year by Active Network as they make deeper inroads into the church market:

• 02/11 – Active Network acquires Fellowship Technologies
• 07/11 – Active Network acquires Connection Power
• 10/11 – Active Network acquires ServiceU

While this latest move isn’t surprising, it is significant nonetheless. If you are not familiar with Active Network, please read up on my previous post and you will understand why. What is even more interesting is since their entry into the church market in February, Active Network has become a publicly traded company on the New Your Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘ACTV.’ Though their stock has performed commensurate with the rest of the market (see comparison), they did earn a record net income of 5.5 million in Q2 of this year:

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With the acquisition of ServiceU, Active Network gains a VISA/Mastercard certified level 1 service provider and adds 2,400+ clients (though many likely overlap with the client base of Fellowship Technologies and Connection Power). ServiceU is no lightweight. There are plenty of case studies by Dell, AMD, and Microsoft that attest to the maturity and infrastructure that lies beneath the ServiceU platform. Allen Ratta, CEO of ConnectionPower has already made it clear what all of this means: “Over time, the unique ministry features of ConnectionPower will be incorporated into Fellowship Technologies’ solutions into a branded suite of products called ActiveWorks | Faith.” ServiceU is another addition to this suite of products. This move makes complete sense for two reasons: (1) Fellowship Technologies and ServiceU had already formed a partnership a year ago this month (prior to both their acquisitions). And (2) ServiceU falls in line with Active Network’s core business…event management.

Given AN’s history, one might ask, “Who’s next?”

• SoChurch? After all, SoChurch formed partnerships with both Fellowship Technologies and ServiceU less than a year ago. Though it is unclear if the integration between SoChurch and F1 was ever completed.
• Table Project? The integration exists with F1 but it is a direct competitor with SoChurch (in my opinion). Table Project appears to have more momentum than SoChurch.
• Monvee? Now this is a great tool and has some real potential for facilitating spiritual formation in the local church, but it doesn’t scale well unless it is integrated with your ChMS. Their partnership with ACS has resulted in a universal API, but it is unclear if that same partnership would exclude them from any considerations by AN.
• I could go on but the landscape is littered with numerous smaller, niched applications.

In the end, I am pleased to hear the good news….knowing that in time churches will benefit from a fuller featured and integrated suite of products from Active Network. In the interim, we need to continue to pray for the leadership at Active Network:

• Pray that AN’s senior leadership will maintain a clear mission, vision, and corporate identity given their long history of acquisitions.
• Pray that AN’s senior leadership will always remember that their greatest asset is their own people.
• Pray for the Tim Whitehorn and ServiceU’s employees as they begin this transition.
• Pray for Jeff Hook to discern wisely how best to merge these teams together and to discern rightly the next steps in the product road map.