DevPress sold for $14,000 on Flippa

Update: Devin Price is the new owner.

DevPress has a storied four year history, and today it’s been sold on Flippa for a mere $14,000.

What started as a partnership between four well known WordPress community members was eventually reduced to a one-man operation, under the guidance of Tung Do.

Tung, Justin Tadlock, Patrick Daly, and Ptah Dunbar originally partnered on DevPress, and from the start they had a hard time achieving consistent commitment levels from the various partners. In late 2011, Tung became the sole owner of DevPress.

Then, in 2012, Tung Do entered another partnership, this time with AlienWP, a theme shop that gained traction with popular free themes, that also utilized Hybrid Core as the base framework for the themes. It appeared to be an excellent match, but the AlienWP partnership lasted not quite one year before they amicably parted ways.

Since that time, Tung has had various periods of high activity and very low activity. A number of times he focused on various products and ideas; at different times Tung teased or released themes, a dashboard plugin, a hosted website service, and even a dip into writing WordPress news. I’ve covered a number of DevPress’ various transitions and endeavors.

It’s unfortunate that DevPress has gone this route. I understand the need for Tung to offload the site, but I wish it was another way. Surely, a number of other people active in the WordPress community would have been eager to discuss potential acquisition with Tung, yet today it was bought on Flippa with the “buy now” option for only $14,000.

In the Flippa listing, Tung shows revenue numbers for the last year. They are highly inconsistent, with the lowest month’s income at $130 and the highest month’s at $3,570. There is definitely evidence that the business had potential, and with a consistent investment into the themes and plugins there, I believe it could’ve been a go-to source for people looking for simple, well-designed and well-coded products.

I don’t know who the purchaser is — maybe it will end up being someone with a passion for WordPress and its community. DevPress was always a very idealistic thing, and both as a four-person partnership and under just Tung, DevPress explored new and bold ideas. Who knows what will happen now.

Tung cites his reasoning for selling in the Flippa listing:

For the past 4 years, through thick and thin I did not want to sell this site. WordPress theme development is one of the few things I love, but I’ve not have [sic] had time to run this site properly and my wife has been sick for the past few months. I’ve already taken a loan 2 months ago, but her medical bills are slacking up. Obviously, I love my wife more so I’ve decided to sell.

I wish Tung the best and hope that he and his wife are able to get through the rough patch they are in. I’ve tracked DevPress since the beginning, have been a customer at various times, and throughout its history I’ve had hopes that it would one day be a successful WordPress business. It’s too bad to see it end like this.