Did anyone else read between the lines of Volusion’s press release that hit the wire two days ago?

The title reads “Volusion Grows to Power More than 40,000 online Stores and Prepares for Rapid Business Expansion” – making you think they’re mostly announcing a major milestone (40,000 ecommerce stores). But savvy readers (I’m savvy) see through this slippery ruse and start to wonder what the real purpose of this announcement is.

Ecommerce platforms issue press releases for all sorts of reasons:

…and at first glance, you would think that Volusion is simply announcing their customer headcount, but then you see the press release has 20 bullet points… each of which a different sort of ‘pat on the back’ trying to add credibility to Volusion as a solid investment.

They go on about substantial revenue growth, expansion, aggressive hiring, a new general council and a new member of their board of directors.

In fact, the most thorough point in the press release isn’t about their 40,000 customers at all – it’s about Timothy J. Barker, who is joining Volusion from a company called RealPage.

“Appointed the third Board of Directors member, Timothy J. Barker. Barker is the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for RealPage, Inc., a leading provider of on demand software and software-enabled services to the rental housing industry, and brings over 17 years of experience. In his time as a public-company CFO, he has been responsible for building infrastructure for SEC disclosure requirements, financial planning and analysis, accounting, revenue growth strategies, financial transactions and enhancing liquidity.” (Source, Volusion Press Release, Nov 2012)

Anyone else think Volusion is planning for IPO? Or perhaps thinking about raising Venture Capital?

As a side note, I have to mention my favorite bullet point: “Volusion leads the industry as the #1 SaaS ecommerce provider.”  Now don’t get me wrong – Volusion certainly is a good ecommerce platform (we have ranked them #3 on our 2012 list), but how can they possibly say they’re number one without citing a source? Who gave them this prestigious award of #1 ecommerce provider? Clearly, that trophy was fabricated by Volusion’s marketing team. Thanks for listening to my rant.

What do you think about Volusion’s most recent press release? Do you think Volusion is preparing for an IPO? Or perhaps preparing to raise money? Lets talk in the comments.