The parent company of SexTracker has acquired YNOT Networks from Online Imaginations, YNOT's parent company, announcing the deal finalized last month at a press conference during the first full day of ia2000 here.
Flying Crocodile, parent of SexTracker, says both SexTracker and YNOT will remain autonomous organizations under terms of the deal, with Flying Crocodile founder/CEO Andrew Edmond saying SexTracker plans to devote all available resources to make YNOT "the central voice of unionship, leadership, consensus, and advocacy" involving consumer, Webmaster, and legislative issues affecting the adult Internet industry.
YNOT founder Rick Muenyong plans to stay on as a senior advisor to YNOT while bringing himself more toward the mainstream Internet world.
"I'm very excited about YNOT," Edmond says. "All we want to do is we want to take all the things that have made SexTracker successful - our professionalism, our planning, our vision - and turn that over to YNOT and help YNOT become better because of it."
Precisely how he plans to do that, he says, will solidify within the next three months. Edmond plans to serve as interim YNOT CEO for up to six months, while the company hunts for a new permanent CEO, preferably, he says, from the mainstream world, if possible.
The newly merged partners introduced a new board of directors, including Al Fore of Foreplay Entertainment, Richard Nash of Pornholio, YNOT's Kevin Blatt and Muenyong, Laura Day of Scarlett.net, Sean Beaudet of SexTracker, Oz of TrueCash, Greg Dumas of iGallery, and R.B. of MaximumCash.
YNOT will relocate to San Diego, CA, from its current location in Diamond Bar, outside Anaheim. SexTracker will remain in Seattle.
"SexTracker and YNOT are very similar in that we are team players, we run by the rules adhering to the highest common denominator rather than the lowest, and (we) believe strongly in the future and continued success of those in the adult Webmaster industry," Edmond says.
The players did not disclose the terms of the deal, which was finalized in December following comparatively quick interest from Edmond in making the merge.
"When I think of how much YNOT has done for me and for the industry as a whole, I just think the organization of everything pertaining to adult Webmasters, there was just nothing before YNOT, and it brought so much to the industry I hope we can continue to strive toward that (excellence)," Nash says.
Blatt, who will handle marketing and networking for YNOT under the new deal, says understanding the issues around the industry will be critical, particularly with potential political changes coming within the next two years as the Presidential campaign gets into full heat.
"We have great talent here representing the industry," he says.
