Online marketing and search engine optimization firm SEO.com is expanding its services to include web design / development with the acquisition of Graphics.net, as announced yesterday for an undisclosed amount. Michael Benson from Graphics.net will join SEO.com as the vice president of Web development.
The acquisition of Maryland-based Graphics.net by SEO.com makes sense, because the latter can now combine website optimization with design services and social media applications. It’s also funny to note Graphics.net actually did some design and other work for SEO.com in the past, so there were already some ties.
Update: as a commenter points out, there are more connections than this: apparently both SEO.com and Graphics.net are portfolio companies of private equity firm WashingtonVC, which means this isn’t so much an acquisition as an investor / owner melting two of its companies together.
SEO.com further added that there’s seeing decent growth after a decade in business: in the last year alone, the SEO firm says it has quintupled its size, growing from 12 employees to more than 50, and moved to a larger office in Salt Lake County. It’s not clear how many people Graphics.net employs and if all will be transitioning to SEO.com.
(Hat tip to James Green for the heads up)