I just learned today that two of the companies I founded back in 1998 (and sold in 2004) were just acquired by F&W Publications, one of the largest private publishing and media houses in the country (with a niche focus in the fine art industry). It brought a smile to my face.

Back when I originally founded WetCanvas.com and Art-Agent.com, there was no concept of social media (although I do think we were a bit ahead of the times with some of the aspects of the community we built). It will be interesting to see what F&W does with the properties now. I’ve often thought back about WetCanvas!, and wondered what I would do with it in today’s landscape - especially given the advent of blogging and social networks.

We actually approached F&W about acquiring the company way back when (can’t remember exactly.) At the time, I don’t think they really “got” the concept (and power) of online communities. At the time, there rationale was along the lines of “we’re a traditional publisher, and the online space is not our core competency.” Glad to see this has changed. The WC community will benefit enormously by this transaction.

I also just had a strange flashback to a two week stint where I pulled all-night code rodeos trying to get the color matching algorithms to work right for searching art at art-agent.com. Ah, the good old days.

I found a cool online video put out by F&W - talking about the acquisition.

Congrats to Geoff and Kerri for a job well done!

Cheers.