Critical Path acquires ShoZu

Congratulations to the ShoZu team who have earned a well deserved exit — and congratulations to the team at Critical Path who saw the potential of combining their Memova platform suite with ShoZu’s engineering.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the fully integrated offering looks like.

Here’s the announcement of the deal:

LONDON, January 5, 2010 – ShoZu, issued the following statement in conjunction with news of today’s acquisition of the award-winning social media hub by Critical Path, Inc., a leading provider of messaging applications and enterprise solutions:

“We’re delighted to have found the perfect home for the ShoZu brand and service in Critical Path,” said Chris J. Wade, Chairman and CEO. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the seamless fit of our combined technology and approach to serving the market and the opportunity for our outstanding engineering team to continue to make important technical contributions to Critical Path going forward. We strongly believe in the roadmap for our future together serving Critical Path’s traditional customers, as well as new users attracted by the power of our combined applications. The acquisition of ShoZu by Critical Path really is a beneficial matchup for both companies — resulting in a powerful capability for elegantly sharing, communicating and collaborating on information that’s at the core of personal and business relationships.”

Nigel Pilkington, ShoZu Board Director from SEB Venture Capital UK, said: “We are very pleased with the transaction and delighted with Chairman Chris Wade’s role in creating and completing this agreement. Chris came in on a day-to-day basis at a critical juncture when he took on the additional responsibilities of CEO in June 2009 and very quickly managed the company to a successful outcome for us.”

Chris Wade concludes, “I also can’t speak highly enough about the support from the team at SEB Venture Capital UK, the lead investors in ShoZu, as well as the significant contribution from our communications agency, Comunicano, and its CEO, Andy Abramson.”