Aqua Platform acquires all activities of Revive Software and Services
A New Chapter in an Ongoing Open Source Ad Server Adventure
Aqua Platform and Revive Software and Services proudly announce that they have reached an agreement for the transfer of all business activities, assets, and liabilities from Revive SAS to Aqua Platform. This marks a significant moment in the world of open source ad server technology and offers new opportunities for innovation and growth for all stakeholders.
About the companies
Revive Software and Services (Revive SAS) is a company best known for its development and maintenance of the Revive Adserver open-source software, the Revive Adserver Download edition, as well as the operation of a very popular cloud solution of the same software, the Revive Adserver Hosted edition.
Revive SAS was founded in January 2015 in order to create a legal entity underpinning the Revive Adserver open source project. The project itself originated in September 2013 and was started as the successor of another open source project that went by the names OpenX Source, Openads, phpAdsNew and originally phpAds as far back as 1997.
Aqua Platform is a company that specialises in hosting services for Revive Adserver software, along with the development and management of additional software products and services for Revive Adserver. Nowadays, the company is responsible for hosting many dozens of dedicated Revive Adserver installations for companies of all sizes from across the globe. There is also a large shared hosting environment based on the same software, called Aqua Ad Server, which has hundreds of customers in dozens of different industries and markets. All of this has a solid foundation in a cloud server and networking infrastructure that was developed in-house, also called Aqua Platform.
Aqua Platform was also founded in January 2015. From the very start, Aqua Platform has made major contributions to the Revive Adserver open source project, in terms of development and testing resources, real world experience to inspire future development, and (since 2018) the back-end of the entire Revive Adserver Hosted edition operation.
Reasons for the transfer and effects for customers and subscribers
Over the years, the overlap between the activities of both companies has grown and widened, and there is also a significant overlap in the team members that operate on both sides. Board and shareholders of both companies recently came to the realisation that the benefits of maintaining two entirely independent legal entities have decreased to a point where it makes more sense to form a new combination.
Therefore, both sides have agreed to combine their operations and expertise into a single legal entity, Aqua Platform, with the aim of continuing to deliver high-quality ad server hosting services to customers worldwide, and to safeguard the maintenance, development and promotion of the Revive Adserver software by embedding the open source project into the existing Aqua Platform organisation.
With the transfer of all Revive Adserver activities into Aqua Platform, the new organisation can benefit from many synergies and economies of scale.
Erik Geurts has been the part time Managing Director of both Aqua Platform and Revive SAS since the two companies were founded in 2015. He emphasises the significance of this agreement:
“This step will enhance our capacity to further develop and innovate the open source ad server system, which will be beneficial to all users of the Revive Adserver Download edition, to all subscribers of the Revive Adserver Hosted edition, and to all customers (current and future) our our enterprise grade hosting services that are and always have been based entirely on the Revive Adserver software.”
Timing and formalities
The agreement will formally take effect on January 1, 2024, but the combined teams have already started the preparations for the new situation.
After the transfer of all activities, assets, and liabilities of Revive SAS to Aqua Platform has been completed, the Revive SAS company will be dissolved.
Leadership team
- Erik Geurts will continue to serve as shareholder and Managing Director of Aqua Platform after the transfer.
- Matteo Beccati, lead developer of the Revive Adserver software will continue to perform these responsibilities under the flag of Aqua Platform, where he has also been a shareholder and Development Director since 2015.
- The open source project and the existing hosting business operated by Aqua Platform will continue to benefit from the expertise and 15 years of hands-on experience brought to the team by Ian van Marwijk, who has been a shareholder and the Technical Director of Aqua Platform for many years.
Ian, Matteo, and Erik will stay on as the leadership team of Aqua Platform.