Thanks Brett!
I just did a blog post about my future plans for the sites...and I'm super excited about this opportunity.

Never been a fan of the network myself. If there's great content in there somewhere, I never quite managed to find it. The tools are all right, but the design gets in the way most of the time. It's just hard to take seriously when any site about SEO, web development or any such topic looks and functions as though I shouldn't be taking their advice. The apparent slap from Panda, which probably drove down the price (and/or upped the need to sell), proves that point.

Having said that, this is obviously a great opportunity to improve, and the future plans outlined in that blog post are a good start (the advertising bits in particular, right now I can't even use the navigation properly because the ads overlap -- which is probably indicative of previously set priorities). In the right hands, there's much to win, though much must have been lost in the past years, so congratulations, and good luck.

This looks like the kind of takeover that can inject some life. Too many takeovers only mean a bunch of people are now in the back room with calculators. I haven't visited DevShed in a while, maybe today..

The apparent slap from Panda, which probably drove down the price (and/or upped the need to sell), proves that point.

...and if there is anyone who can get rid of that "slap from Panda" and bring the traffic back again, it's Jim.

Congrats, Jim!

Thanks for the confidence Bill.

I just went into the analytics of the 2 biggest sites going back to jan of 2011, and I didn't see any effects from panda...traffic has been fairly steady on the sites from all I've seen, and actually, overall, increasing slowly. So it's not a bad start...there's some really good people participating there, and together, over time, search engines should mean less to the sites overall traffic...it's branding... and valuable content, and valuable tools...rankings and search engine traffic are not my concern.

Congratulations and best wishes, Jim!

Intelligent, focused action is what makes dreams come true and you seem to be well on the way!

way to go, Jim!

Good going, Jimbo. All the luck to you and your new crew.

There's a group of assets that I alway felt should be a lot more valuable than the previous owners were making it. Jim - congratulations and best wishes on the new properties. This is very good news!

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the support!

Hey Guys. It's good to see that Jim has fostered my baby (SEO Chat). He was very interested in it back in the day when I was looking to let it go so that I could focus on other projects, and it took a while, but now he's got it. I'm glad to see that someone that truly cares about it is now in charge.

- Darrin Ward
(Jim's Feeling Lucky!)

Congratulations, Jim. I look forward to the new-look devshed sites, esp SEO Chat.

WTG Jim!

I haven't been to your site in a while and that's a huge change from what I remember, very impressive!

Well deserved and I'm very happy for you Jim!

Congratulations, Jim! This stuff's in your blood, I know. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with these additional tools and properties. Great news!

Excellent move Jim. The SEO and developer space has room for another strong community. This is a positive step for the entire community.

Congrats Jim!

Congrats Jim...

That's good stuff! Congrats.

Congrats Jim!

Surprised/Shocked..
Worst being best or best being worst ?

Branding makes sense, even for best google spammers :)