Forums that have been bought and did better than before?

It's quite rare to find a forum that's been bought being more successful that it used to. I mean, most admins usually don't buy dead sites, they buy sites that are already active just to profit; those sites always end up dying, eventually. There is a very small group of admins who buy sites and actually put effort into them; whether it's design or activity, they do end up making a better version of what initially was an idea with great potential.

 

Why do most forums that are being bought die?

1. they're dead anyway. Many admins sell a forum when the activity is dwindling, not when it's in full swing. I mean I got offers to sell topadmin and I'd be crazy to sell. So most of the time, a forum gets sold when the admin is kinda sick of it, doesn't have time, the forum is dying etc.
2. people don't like change. Even if they are not really active or crazy about the forums, many members will dislike the idea of 'being sold'. Sure, if most of them cared about the forum before it would get sold, but that's another story.

So ... a lot of forums get sold to make an 'exit' and most new admins don't know/care about re-starting it.

On another note, if you do buy a forum to get it better, you need to put some really hard work into it. And then it can be done. I don't purchase sites anymore (try to curb my spending), but I would get a site and have a good plan to get it back on track. But for most maybe this is not an issue, they're after the revenue or just to add another site. That's when they're not buying out competition to merge or just close down the site.