아무래도 모기업의 폐쇄 요청이 있던게 아닌가 싶네요...

First of all: thank you very much on behalf of all of us. Thank you for your years of loyal visit to Hardware Info, your membership of Hardware Info Magazine, watching Hardware Info TV and your presence at our events. Your mostly constructive, honest comments have kept us sharp in recent years. Partly because of this, we have been able to innovate, create better and better articles and reviews and have been able to further improve the site.

Making Hardware Info was a team sport. Over the years, many different people have collaborated on this site. We also owe a lot of thanks to those people. People with infinite passion, knowledge and love for technology and this brand.

Today is the last day Hardware Info is getting editorial updates. This article is therefore written by me, Frank Everaardt, with pain in the heart. I personally would have wanted to go on for years to come. The motivated crew and the wonderful developments in this market have given me enormous energy and drive. Thanks to that, I was able to manage this site 24/7 and write more than 260 reviews this year.

Saying goodbye hurts. I remember well that I first met Koen Crijns in person in 1999. That was at a Gigabyte event, in Dordrecht. We got to know each other there. In the end, it led to us shouldering under Hardware Info, until then a hobby project by Koen. I myself wrote for Computer at the time! Total, ComputerPartner and InfoWorld. In the meantime, I studied computer science in The Hague.

In the end I went to work with Eric van Ballegoie in Rijswijk, and Koen in Maastricht. Later it became Voorburg and Hardware Info grew further. In collaboration with HUB Publishers in Haarlem, we brought Hardware Info Magazine to the market. Thanks to this magazine, we were able to survive in that not so digital time. In the early days of online video we also started making Hardware Info TV, an online program about the developments in this technical world.

We worked with VARA Kassa, among others, where we found out the cause of the problem that the Xbox scratched the discs of expensive games. The company grew, from three nerds - Koen Crijns, Frank Everaardt and Eric van Ballegoie - literally in the attic, into a really small company with more employees.

The company grew the three techs over the head and in 2016 Hardware Info was sold to the Persgroep, now DPG Media. The year before I was out of the running for a few months because of an unfortunate fall. I'm still thinking about the many cards I got from you. Including a card with duct tape: with it you can fold everything, including a Frank. And yes, I've saved all your cards. Thanks again. As I tap this, it moves me.

The years that followed were different. A small company like Hardware Info is different from a large organization like DPG Media, with many nice colleagues and beautiful brands.

Since September 2021 I have been at the helm of this site again. We have been working on a huge editorial improvement. I am extremely proud of the team that made this possible, and also thank the many brands that have helped us. With more than 440 reviews since March 2022 and many background articles, we have put HWI back on level. I owe a lot of thanks to everyone who helped with that.

We are on the eve of a new year. First of all, I wish you a fantastic and healthy 2024. Unfortunately, the time has come when the site is going to close and I am closing the door of DPG Media behind me. I will remain active in this market, but no longer with this brand so familiar to me and in this now familiar house.

Again, thank you

Frank Everaardt

Bard에 물어보니 이렇게 답을 하는군요.

"이 기사는 하드웨어 정보의 종말에 관한 것입니다. 사이트의 역사와 폐쇄 이유를 다룹니다. 사이트는 1999년에 세 명의 친구가 설립했으며 하드웨어 뉴스와 리뷰의 인기 있는 플랫폼으로 성장했습니다. 2016년에 회사는 DPG Media에 매각되었지만 설립자 Frank Everaardt는 2021년에 편집장으로 복귀했습니다. 팀의 노력에도 불구하고 사이트는 더 이상 수익을 창출할 수 없었고 2023년 12월에 폐쇄되었습니다. Everaardt는 하드웨어 업계에서 여전히 활동하고 있지만 더 이상 Hardware Info 브랜드를 사용하지 않습니다."

모기업에서 압박이 있던 모양이네요.