Plataformatec acqui-hired by Nubank

http://blog.plataformatec.com.br/2020/01/important-information-about-our-elixir-and-ruby-open-source-projects/

Decided against including more info in the title, but the gist is that Plataformatec sponsored projects will continue with the assets being transferred to the individuals directly.

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This is extremely reassuring to read! Usually acqui-hiring is an early sign of the death of any open-source work that the acquired organisation was doing prior.

Thanks a lot, @josevalim, for taking the time to write a very clearly worded post about this transition! So glad to see the Plataformatec-sponsored projects will keep on going.

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I’m very happy to know that this impressive language, community and core members will stay alive. Thanks @josevailm, Plataformatec and Nubank for making this possible.

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Congrats to José and all of the Plataformatec team :023:

We’re seeing quite a lot of consultancies being acquired for their talent recently (Deliveroo acquired @Cultivate last year for pretty much the same reason) - goes to show these teams have talent and have chosen (or in the case of Plataformatec, created) great tech!

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That was an unexpected announcement. At least for me. But I’m glad how that’s gonna play out. At the company I’m working ppl were uncertain on the future of the language. I kinda expected that the core team would continue to maintain the language etc.

Just got happy knowing that they will move all the trademarks to the community. It means we won’t have a Oracle like situation here \o/

I work with 3 former plataformatec employees. They are all amazing people. And I’m surprised how far the company went with a relative small staff.

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Won’t this affect Elixir’s financial support though? Weren’t the Platformatec developers being paid to develop Elixir. Will Nubank now support it?

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Not really. Elixir is maintained by a team and I am the only member of the Elixir team at Plataformatec. So even if I would no longer be supported (which is not the case as I will continue contributing in the same capacity), Elixir would still be in good hands. :slight_smile:

Plus, the whole community and all other companies supporting Elixir did not change - and we wouldn’t get where we are today without them. Brex, Dockyard, and Erlang Solutions are three from the top of my head but there are many more. Also, don’t forget about Erlang Ecosystem Foundation, which supports all communities built on top of Erlang, including Elixir.

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Thank you for clearing this up.

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Thanks for being so open about the process! I have one question, though: Your post refers to transferring ownership of the brands to the individuals maintaining the projects. Wouldn’t it make sense to transfer ownership of the Elixir trademarks to the EEF? Then they would truly be community-owned and we could maybe figure out an official trademark policy for the Elixir logo :wink:

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The trademarks will be transferred to the Elixir Core Team and we will take the appropriate steps next. EEF would likely be a good home but at the same time they have a more wide and general goal. Given the focus is exclusively in the trademark (as well as having an open trademark policy), a smaller entity may work better. We will explore the options over the next weeks. The important bit I wanted to get out in the announcement was simply that they wouldn’t be held by Plataformatec nor Nubank. :slight_smile:

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Congrats plataformatec team :partying_face:
I’m happy to read that Elixir will be own by the community. This is very reassuring that the future of Elixir will be fantastic.

Thank you José and the team, for the hard work you put into the language and for keeping it open source and owned by the community.

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So can we get some official Elixir swag then :wink:

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Yes sell swag!!!

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I’d happy to maintain an official Elixir Store and sell all swag if that’s a popular idea. If the Elixir team is interested in that I’m always here.

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A question that came from the slack:

What will happen to the “Elixir Radar”?

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You will continue receiving fresh e-mails in your inbox every week. :slight_smile:

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Someone said Elixir swag! Do it, now! If you can provide shirts and zip hoodies, I will be happy.

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As I wrote on Twitter, part of me is sad. Plataformatec seemed to be a nice company. I like Nubank but PTec seemed to be even nicer.

is Nubank going to utilise Elixir in some way? I thought they were mostly about Clojure.

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Congrats on the sale and thanks for all the hard work!

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