On November 16, 2013, WordPress and Drupal digital agency Crowd Favorite was acquired by Atlanta-based VeloMedia, marking a significant consolidation in the CMS consultancy market. The move brings together two seasoned teams to strengthen enterprise-level offerings in web development, hosting, and support for content management platforms.
Joining Forces for a Stronger Enterprise Portfolio
Crowd Favorite, founded in 2006 and known for large-scale CMS implementations, joins VeloMedia, which was established in 2009 with deep expertise in WordPress, Drupal, and platform hosting. This acquisition aligns the companies’ focus on delivering tailored solutions for enterprise customers.
Key attributes of the combined team include:
- Expertise in Drupal and WordPress architecture
- Experience supporting high-traffic, globally distributed websites
- In-house development and engineering teams with breadth across content management systems
VeloMedia’s leadership emphasized that Crowd Favorite’s engineers will integrate seamlessly, allowing the company to offer expanded services such as enterprise hosting, performance optimization, and CMS migrations under one roof.
Benefits for Clients and the Broader CMS Ecosystem
The acquisition offers tangible advantages to existing and future customers and the wider ecosystem of agencies and developers.
Strategic benefits include:
- Unified CMS competency: Clients can now access WordPress and Drupal expertise in one partnership.
- Scalable hosting solutions: Leveraging VeloMedia’s cloud hosting infrastructure for enterprise-grade performance and reliability.
- Robust support and retained operations: Crowd Favorite support teams continue unaffected, ensuring continuity.
- Greater resource availability: Cross-pollination of talent enhances capacity for large and complex projects.
Industry analysts note that combining consulting and hosting under a single provider reduces friction and ensures responsibility throughout the development lifecycle, from design and deployment to maintenance and uptime.
A Marriage of Technical Cultures
Both Crowd Favorite and VeloMedia uphold strong technical standards in open-source development. The acquisition merges their approaches:
- Agile and DevOps-driven workflows to accelerate time-to-market
- Customized hosting architectures tuned for content-heavy sites and global distribution
- Shared commitment to training and knowledge-sharing, including conferences and workshops
This synergy enables the merged entity to serve more sophisticated client demands, such as performance at scale, redundant infrastructure, and proactive monitoring.
Cultural and Operational Integration
Rather than subsuming or rebranding Crowd Favorite entirely, VeloMedia chose to retain its partner-centric legacy. The company will maintain Crowd Favorite’s offices and client-facing identity while leadership and support staff continue in familiar roles.
- Client accounts remain managed by original teams, ensuring no loss of trust
- Talent retention efforts commit to keeping key engineers in place
- Expansion of service offerings with minimal disruption to ongoing projects
This people-first approach reassures long-time customers that project security, timeliness, and quality will persist as before.
Navigating CMS Complexity with Unified Services
As digital ecosystems evolve, enterprises require consulting firms that can manage multiple CMS platforms efficiently. The combined entity positions itself to deliver:
- Holistic CMS solutions: Clients can plan, build, host, and support sites across WordPress and Drupal using one provider
- Better integration workflows: Automation and APIs are used to synchronize content between systems
- Continuous performance improvements: Leveraging shared DevOps tools and experience
Professionally managed deployments and SLA-backed infrastructure make the combined portfolio compelling for enterprise clients seeking strong post-launch support and uptime guarantees.
The Road Ahead for Clients and Industry
With this acquisition, Crowd Favorite and VeloMedia reaffirm their commitment to open-source platforms. Their shared vision focuses on:
- Scaling hosting and support capabilities to match enterprise demand
- Expanding global reach, especially for CMS migrations and performance optimization
- Continuous service innovation, from security hardening to multilingual site builds
By blending Crowd Favorite’s deep CMS consultants with VeloMedia’s hosting infrastructure, the acquisition creates a more powerful offering for clients around high-performance, scalable, and flexible digital platforms.
A New Era for CMS Enterprise Services
The joining of Crowd Favorite and VeloMedia marks a turning point in the open-source agency space. It demonstrates how combining deep technical expertise with reliable hosting services can deliver superior outcomes for enterprise clients. This move signals maturation in the agency consulting sector, where end-to-end service delivery and platform reliability are increasingly critical.
The merged organization is well-positioned to tackle ambitious digital experiences, handling CMS architecture, hosting optimization, and ongoing support within a unified structure. As corporate demands for speed, flexibility, and uptime intensify, this combination offers a compelling solution that bridges development, infrastructure, and continuous operation.
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