180solutions plus Hotbar equals...
They tied the knot today, that is, 180solution and Hotbar. The new (?) name is Zango. The folks at VitalSecurity think the new entity should have been named ZangoBar. I think it has a nice ring.
From the Seattle P-I:
The merger is not about cost savings, Baur said, but "about growth and momentum. Together, we have a wonderful library of things we can monetize through advertising. What they do adds diversity and strength and skill to that."
Together, the two companies will be able to offer more than 100,000 pieces of free content to a base of more than 30 million users, Baur said. In addition, he said about 150,000 people sign up for the applications each day.
York Baur is Zango's executive vice president. He continues:
"Through this merger, we are on path to continue expanding into other forms of content. There's no reason why there shouldn't be millions of items monetized by Zango," he said.
"Millions of items" like this, this, and, well, here's a summary of 180's activities in 2005. If you're not familiar with Hotbar, their reputation isn't squeaky clean either. See Ben Edelman's piece on What's So Hot about Hotbar, referring to Hotbar's Cease and Desist letter to Sunbelt Software last year. Sunbelt responded to the letter with a detailed analysis of Hotbar's software, which can be read here (PDF).
Zango's announcement can be read here.