Friday, December 20, 2013

Big Blast: Merger of Elance and oDesk


Elance & oDesk Merger


Fabio Rosati, CEO of Elance wrote that, Elance and oDesk have signed an agreement to merge with each other.  This is clearly big news, and I wanted to give you my perspective on what it means for you and why we decided to do it.

First, I want to make sure that you know that we plan to continue to operate two separate platforms at elance.com and odesk.com, respectively.

As for why we made the decision to merge, our motivation is pretty simple—we want to deliver you the best online freelancing experience possible. We plan to do this by making significant investments in technology, including tools for a more effective job search, seamless online collaboration and improved mobile accessibility. Also, with deeper expertise in data science, you will benefit from improved personalization and user experience.  Please do note that the merger is still subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions, and we expect it to close in the next four months or so.

I understand that this is a big change and you may have additional questions. Please visit the most Frequently Asked Questions on our website. And if you have suggestions on how we can make our service even better, please send me an email directly at Fabio.Rosati@elance.com.

Finally, thank you for trusting Elance with your freelancing career. We look forward to providing you with more opportunities to work differently.

Warm Regards,

Fabio Rosati
CEO, Elance