[jonathaneunice]

A single example is insufficient, especially when that example is Drupal.

In a former life I evaluated WordPress, Drupal, and some other open source CMSs. Drupal seemed remarkably terrible. Maybe I just wasn't the target user...but UI, UX, and DX all seemed blighted and the ecosystem much less vibrant than WP's. Came away thinking it was a vestige of yesteryear, and not something in which to invest any time, energy, or money.

Maybe that's a harsh take on Drupal, but one already-seemingly-in-decline property from which one PE firm extracted value... if over-extraction and under-investment really is a systemic problem of PE, there must be many more, much better examples.

[itsdrewmiller]

If you look at the chart, Drupal starts declining immediately upon being purchased. Hard to imagine Vista was able to destroy the community that quickly; seems more likely they bought high on Acquia, or even Acquia was doing something sneaky to juice its sale price.