Ektron

Founded in 1998 by Bill Rogers, Ektron established itself as a provider of web content management (WCM) software. Rogers, an entrepreneur with a background in electrical engineering, digital signal processing, and robotics, started the company from his basement with the vision of creating an operating system for the web that would empower business users.

Ektron's core product was a content management system (CMS) built on Microsoft's .NET framework, designed to enable users to create, publish, and manage website content. The platform targeted enterprise-level businesses, including those with international operations, offering tools for non-technical users to manage web content without programming skills. Key features included in-context WYSIWYG editing, document management, enterprise-level search, and multilingual capabilities. The business model centered on licensing its CMS software and generating recurring revenue from maintenance fees. The company's offerings expanded to include e-commerce, social media integration, and mobile web solutions, aiming to provide a comprehensive digital experience platform.

A significant milestone for Ektron was its acquisition by the private equity firm Accel-KKR, which led to a merger with Swedish CMS company EPiServer in January 2015. The combined entity continued under the EPiServer name, with the goal of integrating the strengths of both platforms. This merger marked a pivotal change in Ektron's trajectory, as active development on the Ektron platform ceased, and the focus shifted to migrating customers to the unified, more modern platform, which was later rebranded as Optimizely.

Keywords: Ektron, web content management, WCM, CMS, digital experience platform, .NET CMS, enterprise CMS, Bill Rogers, EPiServer, Optimizely, content management system, digital marketing, e-commerce platform, website management, multilingual websites, document management, Accel-KKR, content authoring, corporate intranet, digital asset management