Mr. Vanos

Dear MBWorld members,

I'm very pleased and excited to announce that MBWorld has been acquired by Internet Brands, Inc., which operates leading automotive web sites such as CarsDirect.com, GreenHybrid.com, NewCarTestDrive and Wikicars.com.

The plan is to maintain MBWorld as a stand-alone site and under its own identity, while leveraging Internet Brands’ technology and content resources where they can enhance the site. There are no changes planned for MBWorld at this point – other than moving to bigger, faster servers. Your existing moderator staff and I will continue to play an active role in the community and in the growth of the site. That is, neither the moderators nor I are going anywhere.

It's important to note that the acquisition took place several months ago and nothing has changed with regards to site identity or administration since then. We were not able to make news of the acquisition public, however, until today. In addition, you may have read that Internet Brands recently acquired Jelsoft Enterprises Limited, the developers of our forum software vBulletin. This is another valuable component to take MBWorld to the next level!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email them to me. There is an FAQ about the acquisition below, and we can discuss the topic in the following thread on MBWorld: CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THAT THREAD. Representatives from Internet Brands will also be responding directly to your comments, questions and concerns there. Also, beyond any questions you might have, I'd enjoy hearing any ideas you might have for how to better serve the MBWorld community going forward.

Thank you.

Simon Atik
MBWorld Founder & Administrator


FAQ’s

Q: Why did Internet Brands acquire MBWorld?
A: Internet Brands’ mission is to empower consumers to make better decisions about buying and maintaining their most important purchases, such as cars and homes. MBWorld’s users offer outstanding advice and support for Mercedes-Benz owners and shoppers, newbies and veterans alike, which should be a very good fit with the rest of the Internet Brands Automotive sites.

Q: Will MBWorld become part of another Internet Brand site?
A: Internet Brands plans to keep MBWorld a separate, thriving site and to continue expanding its content, community and traffic.

Q: Are MBWorld site administrators and moderators going to continue at MBWorld?
A: Yes. MBWorld site admins and moderators will continue their current level of involvement on the site and in the community.

Q: What changes can we expect to see on MBWorld?
A: It's hard to predict far into the future, but for the time being, MBWorld will remain essentially unchanged. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The main near-term addition you’ll probably notice is that Internet Brands will figure out with MBWorld’s admins the most logical places to put links to relevant content on other IB Automotive sites. Beyond that, Internet Brands plans to brainstorm with the admins and moderators of MBWorld about improvements that would make the site more useful.

Q: How will the acquisition help MBWorld?
A: The main benefit will be having more infrastructure and technology resources behind the site. Better servers and hardware will mean better performance for the site and admin tools. And more technology resources will mean faster bug-fixes, quicker turnaround on site changes and more frequent updates in site software, like vBulletin or photo-posting applications.

Q: Will my MBWorld log-in or password change?
A: No you will still access MBWorld as you always have.

Q: Where can I go on the message board to discuss this topic more?
A: Please click HERE to go to the MBWorld thread discussing this topic. To help us better address your questions, comments or concerns, we ask that you keep all discussions of this topic under that specific thread.