Looks like HostGator maybe about to be acquired

Hi GMT,

I haven't found anymore info on this, but I do know that EIG is acquiring Bluehost. I was reading in a different forum that Hostgator's corporate response was that they were looking for buyers at one point, but have decided against selling right now. Not sure how accurate that is.

Sure hope nothing changes with Hostgator. I've never had any problems with them, and they host virtually all of my websites. Lots of big-time acquisitions can make the product go down the drain... or not. Time will tell - but hopefully it's a hoax.

I too am a heavy Hostgator user so I certainly hope nothing bad is in the works! I tried searching for more on this but didn't even notice anything with a 2012 date attached, so hopefully all is still well!

I just asked HostGator's Live Chat if this is true and their response was "Unfortunately I do not have any information on this issue" Is Endurance International Group (EIG) Buying HostGator? | Cast-Iron Hosting Review | Web Hosting

Many here know that I have some connections with HG. All I can tell you is that the source is widely accepted to be very credible on issues of this nature.

Interesting....I did not hear anything about this, but there are always companies buying out each other. I am with Hostgator and need to keep an eye on this.

Instagram is bought for 1 billion, and Host Gator is worth a quarter of that? lol

Here's the info I got from this link.

"Indeed, EIG also wants to acquire HostGator, but HostGator CEO has refused with their generous quoted price, so if you’d like to move your website to HostGator, you don’t need to feel worry about with the acquisition any more and you can use the coupon code “25Promotion” to save 25% cost with HostGator immediately for the first billing order."

I really hope that all this is just a rumor!

I love hostgator the way they are right now...

It's time to go back to site5. I don't know why I left anyway. They're pretty much amazing.

Gosh, I've never used anything but hostgator, and I love it. If there are a bunch of changes, I won't be happy.

And If so?

Why a new owner would change a winning business model, or is HG in the red?

G.

Yes. You don't make money by purchasing a company that is running successfully and changing everything around. Do you really think they would achieve anything by pissing off or alienating the current customers?

Plenty of companies change management and things continue running as they previously did. Sometimes things change but not always.

Well they wouldn't try to mess things up purposely. Just a lot of the time I suppose "big shots" purchase a company, think they know how to do everything right, make a big change because "it's the right thing to do", and FLOP. Right?

If this is true, hopefully nothing will change with Hostgator. If they do go downhill, it's time to get in the hosting business and become the new Hostgator.

"Endurance, a provider of website hosting, is preparing to launch a $225 million credit facility backing its acquisition of Hostgator, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.

Lead bank Credit Suisse will hold a lender conference call Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EST.

The facility comprises a $100 million first-lien term loan B priced at Libor plus 625 bps, with a 1.5% Libor floor and an offer price of 98 cents on the dollar; and a $125 million second lien priced at Libor plus 950 bps, with a 1.5% Libor floor and a 98-cent offer price.

The terms of the transaction also include 101 soft-call protection until April 2013 on the first lien, meaning that if the loan is refinanced before that date, investors will receive a premium of 1% of face value. Soft-call protection on the second lien extends four years at 103 in the first year, 102 in the second year, 101 in the third year, and par in year four.

The Burlington, Mass.-based company currently holds a B1 rating from Moody’s Investor Services and a B rating from Standard & Poor’s.

A provider of online solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, Endurance serves close to 1.8 million customers through more than 30 distinct hosting brands, according to its website.

Houston-based Hostgator provides shared, reseller, virtual private server and dedicated web hosting, according to its website. It was founded in 2002 by Brent Oxley, now the company’s chairman, who started Hostgator from his dorm room at Florida Atlantic University."



This is bad, almost guaranteed EGI is going to increase prices if they acquire HostGator.

If EGI are the ones who acquired Netfirms then that may explain the domain prices being jacked, also EGI apparently has a history of making services *worse* google them.

They have not came up with any official announcement, so hope its just a rummer .

Pardon my innocence. We own some sites hosted in HostGator. How will we be affected once it's acquired by somebody else?

This is the first I have heard of this and it isn’t great news as I host all of my sites with them.

Given EIG's history, I can see nothing good coming from this as far as HG's current customers go if it goes through.

currently I can only say that the unofficial word from Brent is...

That he is working on a response and should have something out in a few days.

That is the update I got just before 1 am central time very early this morning.

This is not the thread I was hoping to stumble
across on my 15 minute break.

I've always been Host Gator customer and have
nothing but good things to say about their
service and support.....I've got all of my
eggs in one basket for sure.

It's sad really, because ultimately I see this change
of power being nothing but negative for customers
and EIG.

I am crossing my fingers that this would not really happen. All of our "money sites" are hosted at hostgator and only our feeder sites which are hosted at hostmonster and bluehost.

However, we should be ready to any change that will happen in the future. Well, it's the only constant, isn't it?

Just found this email from Brent Oxley CEO: Hostgator EIG Endurance email - Pastebin.com

Really hope Hostgator doesn't change for the worse. One of the few companies that has been great to work with long term.

When it comes to the customers, getting acquired is always a scary prospect. Not only for the customers, but also the employees. EIG has bought out a number of other large hosting providers in the past, i.e. BlueHost, NetFirms, IPOWER, JustHost. After the acquisition of BlueHost, I know they let a number of the BlueHost employees go.
Like any business though, EIG has had their fair share of issues. In particular, the transition process has been a major problem for them. I'm not sure what their plans are in terms of the HostGator servers. If the sale closes, I sincerely hope EIG keeps all the servers at SoftLayer. Because the way HostGator uses it's nameservers and servers for it's clients setup, a migration of this magnitude to another facility (or servers) is bound to create issues.

I can imagine each new acquisition for them is an adventure, let's just hope it's not a bumpy ride.

Way to go, just what we need, so company to come in and screw up a good thing. I hope it doesn't happen, but I don't feel good about this.

thanks for the heads-up (another reason why I like the WF, is this kind of news)....I'm extending my HG accounts to 3 years each and prepaying, in case there's a rate increase after the buyout; I've been extremely happy with HG

I don't track this part of the industry very closely. But, I use both Bluehost and Hostgator. Since my sites are simple wordpress sites, I don't have any issues. My largest site has been active on bluehost for 6 months with no issues.

I am a bit concerned as I own a network of WP blogs many of which are performing rather well. All are hosted with Hostgator. I can’t even think of any other hosting provider that I could move them to as I have been completely satisfied with Hostgator since day one and it's the only provider I have used in nearly eight years in IM. Hopefully things will be left as is assuming this deal goes through at all.

good point, Michael... I'm hoping they continue the same level of great service and uptime I've seen this last couple of years though... I just wish I'd used them back in the early/mid 2000s instead of waiting so long to move to them, which i did a couple years ago. hg rocks.

I host sites with HG but my main concern is from an affiliate's standpoint. HG has an amazing aff. program that really rewards affiliates - I really hope that the affiliate agreement and terms remain untouched if the company is sold.

This could get interesing but it would be hignly illogical to make big changes after buying a working system, however we have seen stupid moves by large companies before. I could not imagine they will make major changes, if they are looking to buy it the reason is because they like the system that is in place. We will see what happens and noone can predict the future and the moves of corporate intellegence or the lack of it.

We will just have to wait and see.

I hope this is just an old notice without credibility.
But everyone in the world when see money signs anything.
Hostgator is perfect now, I have 2 accounts with them (one for flipping and one for my own websites) and they work very well, like no other hosting could make.

Consider I've tried many other hosting, but no one is great like Hostgator.
And then it's incredible they sell their huge business for a quarter of what Instagram made with the sale to FB.

I hope it willl be a fake or old notice as something here said.
Otherwise I will suppress my account and I will move my hosting somewhere.

See you soon,
Alessandro

Credit Suisse > Erh... just lost its credit rating, putting it on par with Greece for lending out $10 let alone £100 million

Brett > Is not really a money type of guy, he could have sold out 6 years ago, he did not + he still owes me a few beers

ROI > Hostgator have 2,250,000+/- domains held on RECURRING payments not including any RECURRING hosting fees... would you sell on 22% profit of that a year?

BS > Most of the "above news" is from a recent HG h4ck, which will be bigger news on Monday!!!

SLEEPEASY > Business as usual warriors, we just signed up another 250+ subscribers to HG, are we worried we will not get our % if EIG take over... Erh no!

I can only hope this is a bunch of hyped up hooplah. It seems that when there's a company doing well some rich snot nosed busy body decides they want to take over. IF this truly is something that happens I truly wish hostgator the best but I will move my business elsewhere if fees increase or service changes.

Well I don't know if this is the start of the slide but I just had my entire account shut down without warning. They gave me logs that say 4 of my websites had too much DB activity but my whole account is gone, 18 websites. Bizarre as how do they expect me to access the websites to attempt to fix them while the DB are shutdown?

Corporate bull. I hate the way so few companies in the world own so much.

I have had probably 20 or more hosts over the years I love Host Gator it has been the best of the bunch. Blue Host is fine, but there just way too many unsells anytime you do anything with your account.

I have all my Domains with Hostgator , but i stumbled upon someting five minutes ago,it seems the aquisition has happened the sale of Hostgator has happened ,
go to shoutmeloud . com /hostgator-sold-endurance-endurance-group.html



Lets hope for the best

sorry for broken up link , but have not posted lately on here, but Hostgator is important to me

Hostgator has always been a safe and reliable source for my hosting needs... I've tried plenty others... I also like their affiliate program they have set up and hope the new owners don't make any dramatic changes to it.

They enabled the websites after I tweeted up a storm about it. I see just the normal activity on the websites. Was that just a scare tactic to do an upsell?

I have all of my sites with Hostgator and I really hope this doesnt spell doom and gloom!

Since I'm with hostgator I'm concerned. Has anyone had trouble with their cpanel over the last week or two?
Twice I've had a problem but the second one - my pages show up with a 404 error - was caused by the first, where all my files disappeared from the hostgator legacy file manager. The guy on live chat said it was a c panel problem, hard to tace but easy to fix. Seems he didn't fix something properly and caused the 404 error. I hope it is all fixed now and I have no more problems.

I’ve had some issues with connecting to sites hosted with Hostgator even if I was just on the page. Not sure if this is connected to any sales or mergers or not. It’s usually a temporary problem and I’m able to access the sites shortly thereafter.

I really hope they keep it the way it is right now and everything turns to be just some bluff. Because i love it just the way it is right now.

Well, I know of several people who have just left them.
Maybe not enough to cause real issues but something to keep an eye out for.

I wonder if they can actually get worse. This will be interesting to see. Like the S-L-O-W-L-Y loading web pages. Perhaps they can slow them down some more. Already I am getting time out errors. Hope who ever takes over understands the value of consumer service. Maybe they could add a few more servers.

so its official and done?

I've been with Hostgator for some years now, I don't think the prices would alter much or the service will change. Why would they change much at risk of people leaving.
They will add a little extra to the prices and add more features hopefully.
I'll wait in hope that my sites remain safe with them and the price is not altered

I tried to Google but nothing came out on this topic.Hope it is just a rumor.Hostgator has been my host of choice since I started and I wish they continue doing business as they have been doing for so many years.

I am ready to move my websites to HG. Fortunately I read this thread. Is EIG really bad for HG?

When companies are acquired there are usually two reasons, they either want to quickly get as much money out of it and either sell it or go bust, that's the Bain model, or they invest more money into it and make it a better, more profitable company

I really hope that is not the case, they are the best hosting company, in my opinion and if anything changes i would be disappointed.

I do all my hosting via a reseller account but not with Hostgator..!!

Dude! Thanks for looking out. I really hope this does not happen..

If all the tech support voices start to sound like they're from the other side of the world, I may have misgivings.

Just stumbled across this thread, and not one I wanted to.

I use Hostgator to host multiple sites, and there support is the best. If this new company takes over HG then this could possibly be very bad news, depending on if they are planning on radical changes, or increasing the price..