Im doing a paper for school about this, and it seems to be kind of bare in the search engines.
I know a lot of companies here have gone through acquiring hosting companies in the past, multiple times. Im curious about a few things. I know the basics but more curious about long term numbers.

1. On average what percent of the original client base was retained after a year.
2. How many new accounts came after the acquisition in the first year(did this include and large marketing campaigns??
3. What is a reasonable offer for solid, decent priced hosting company with growth?
4. Do you centralize support if you acquired multiple companies, or handle support/billing etc different for each company?
5. Anything else you would find important, aside from legal, taxes etc.

I know a couple guys here have acquired many hosting companies (othello or something) and would love to chat with you guys 1 on 1 if possible.

Originally posted by emzec
Im doing a paper for school about this, and it seems to be kind of bare in the search engines.
I know a lot of companies here have gone through acquiring hosting companies in the past, multiple times. Im curious about a few things. I know the basics but more curious about long term numbers.

1. On average what percent of the original client base was retained after a year.
2. How many new accounts came after the acquisition in the first year(did this include and large marketing campaigns??
3. What is a reasonable offer for solid, decent priced hosting company with growth?
4. Do you centralize support if you acquired multiple companies, or handle support/billing etc different for each company?
5. Anything else you would find important, aside from legal, taxes etc.

I know a couple guys here have acquired many hosting companies (othello or something) and would love to chat with you guys 1 on 1 if possible.

:D

1. What's your market?
2. What's your market?
3. What's your market?
4. What's your market?
5. Have you figured your market out yet??!

Seriously. It's that different. It also depends on how well the situation was handled, how the previous company was managed before, and many other things I can't even think of at the moment.

I would generally hope you wouldn't lose more than 50% in the first 90 days, but some things you just never can tell.

Thanks jacob, im just looking for probable stats from an ideal acquisition.

Originally posted by emzec
Im doing a paper for school about this, and it seems to be kind of bare in the search engines.
I know a lot of companies here have gone through acquiring hosting companies in the past, multiple times. Im curious about a few things. I know the basics but more curious about long term numbers.

1. On average what percent of the original client base was retained after a year.
2. How many new accounts came after the acquisition in the first year(did this include and large marketing campaigns??
3. What is a reasonable offer for solid, decent priced hosting company with growth?
4. Do you centralize support if you acquired multiple companies, or handle support/billing etc different for each company?
5. Anything else you would find important, aside from legal, taxes etc.

I know a couple guys here have acquired many hosting companies (othello or something) and would love to chat with you guys 1 on 1 if possible.

Brief:

1. In the few "web hosting" acquisitions we have done we have never lost more then 10% of the client base in the first year. Some will drop because of the service change or because they had special agreements with the previous owners that we are not willing to keep. This tends to happen in the first 90 days. In all situations we had special agreements with the previous owners to help keep churn to a minimum.

2. It's always been an increase but I can't say how many were because of the acquisition.

3. 10-24 months depending on profit margins, ability to cut expenses, equipment & software included has been what we look at.

4. At first keep it separate, after 90 days start to merge it over.

5. This will vary depending on the size and structure of the company you are acquiring.