We're acquiring GardenWeb!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kerrville, Texas -- April 01, 2004 -- For several months we have been working behind the scenes, through email, on the phone, and through personal meetings in New Jersey, Texas, and Tennessee, and today I can finally announce our intentions!!

This morning I have finally faxed the official "Intent to Acquire" documents to the attorneys for Virtual Mirror, Inc, a New Jersey corporation which owns (among other things) GardenWeb.

Once the acquisition is complete, we will have acquired the second largest gardening website in the world, merging it with DG, which is, of course the largest. This is a crushing blow to all our competitors.

Along with the GardenWeb forums, we are also gaining all of Virtual Mirror's assets, including their version of our plants database, their garden bazaar, garden calendar, and other smaller features. Although their features are extremely inferior to ours, we believe there is some value in the acquisition.

Robert Stewart (known online as "Spike") said, "The acquisition is excellent for me personally. I'm sick and tired of dealing with these gardeners. I don't even have a garden and I shouldn't be asked to continue to maintain a site about which I have no interest. When Dave approached me earlier this year to acquire my site, I was thrilled and couldn't wait. Today marks a new day in the online gardening world."

The acquisition comes at a time when Dave's Garden is experiencing record growth.

"This is a compelling strategic transaction and an excellent opportunity for the shareholders, employees and partners of both companies, and we expect it will generate significant benefits for hundreds of thousands of gardeners around the world," said Dave Whitinger, founder and CEO of StandardOut, Inc, the parent company of Dave's Garden. "We firmly believe that, as a result of this combination, DG® -- the fastest growing gardening website ever -- will reach its peak of 250,000 signups. Overall, the combination will increase our financial strength, further diversify our product portfolio and accelerate our long-term growth."

The intent to acquire documents are complete, and the next phase is the due diligence required to complete the acquisition. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Good things happen to good people...and to those who care about what they do.

Congrats to Dave and Trish and everyone who worked to make this happen....I guess this is the second 'big surprise' you've had up your sleeves.


Wait a minute...edited to say....this IS April 1, and Dave is pretty good at April Fool's jokes.....hmmmm

This message was edited Apr 1, 2004 7:42 AM

My first thought when I saw the title was April Fools also :)

Who knows though !

WOW!!!! Great!!! I am really EXCITED!!! Congratulations!!

Edited to say "maybe I should temper my enthusiasm?"

This message was edited Apr 1, 2004 7:15 AM

Could be April Fool's... won't believe it until tomorrow.

April Fools was also my first thought. hmmmmm Hey Dave...you tugging on our cable connections??

If not...congrats.

:0) where is the smiley face when you need it..lol

im thinkin april fools too! ;)

Dave, you're awfully quiet. Just not like you.

;-)

It would be interesting to track,and see if the online visits to Disney drop!!
Now I gotta go find my Hemostats and yank this hook out of my jaw!!!

Dave, You better be careful or Spike will send you a one way ticket to Disney! LOL Nat

Congrats and good luck and God bless, if it is an April Fool's, it's not my first, and it sure won't be my last, to fall for it,that is. Have a great day. PS Dave, my check is in the mail for those seeds from Ursula. That's not an April Fool's, it's legit. Danny

LOL! I almost fell for it!

snicker, snort......good one, Dave!

Or.....could it be true? Hmmmm....we shall see!!!!

It could be April's Fools, but wait......remember back when Dave introed the Bookworm? that was one of 2 surprises.....could this be the second one? Or maybe the second one was something else and I just missed it?

I knew what it was as soon as I saw the name of the thread. This is great Dave, you must have been writing this up for days. lol

Sure wish it was true.

Donna

Usually, I'm the first one to catch a joke, but you got me on this one, you rascal! (Still sitting here with my mouth hanging open).

You may call me naive, but I don't think this is a joke. Congratulations :).

He had me up until the fifth paragraph. Then I knew.

You'll let all of us that have been Disneyed know when we can go back and take over GW?

I'm thinking that if anyone subscribed or non paying can read the first post, it must be the real thing.

Yes, it was a joke. :-) A long-standing tradition at DG. I didn't do one last year so I was really looking forward to today. The GardenWeb acquisition was Trish's idea.

Smart move!

I won't go there, everytime I do, I get a Pop-Up advertisement, trying to get into my computer!

Dave, shame on you. I was looking forward to a new landlord over there. LOL!

Excellent, Trish!

LOL! I really didn't see any reason for you to buy Garden Web as many of those members end up here anyways! ;) Wonder what Spike is thinking if he saw this thread.

This was a great April Fool's joke! But just think if all our wishes came true........

Im still laghng tooooo ahard to spelyl

Giggling :) I wondered if you would do one this year. That was a good one Dave and Trish.

Darn I was thinking it was true. Sure would have been nice.

And you people wonder why I don't want a baby born today??? She could turn out like Dave! LOL Reading this about put me into labor big time, then I remembered the date. We all know our guy is good for an April 1st winner!

He had me hooked and I fell for it up until I hit the 'send' button on my post. Just as it posted...I thought about how Dave loves a really good joke and had a feeling that this was his April Fool's offering....but we can all hope for a miracle, can't we?

Oh my goodness!! YOU are SO bad!!! Shhheeshh! First my neighboor called me to tell me my fruit trees (24) I planted last year were pulled up!!! Akkk!!

Wonderful joke though...sounds like Spike!

Davena

Dave, you've not lost your touch...but nowhere did we find the word juggernaut! It just goes without saying, anymore. ;)

I tried finding your previous April 1 missives, but can't locate them. Are they lurking somewhere? Could you link to them so the newer folks can enjoy them?

Hehehe....darn I was gonna see just how long this thing would keep going!

Luv it! Just think how many excited people are reading the first post and wondering what this is all about, wishing they could read the followups! (THIS should bring in some newbies for sure!!)

There is no April First on my calendar...it's marked "Dave's Day"! Wonder where that first year's post is, eh? It was very computer oriented and had some people really going! Heheh!

You da Man, Dave!

Found the M2K Juggernaut story: http://davesgarden.com/t/36011/ LOL

Aha!

From 4-1-2001: http://davesgarden.com/t/22926

From 4-1-2002: http://davesgarden.com/t/218647


This message was edited Apr 1, 2004 4:46 PM

OH your so bad Dave, LOL I was sitting here saying, oh soooo cool!

Dave, you Dawg!! You had me. I thought the "Robert Stewart" comment was especially fitting!