Community Members:

It is with great pleasure that I announce to you that effective November 1, 2005, iNET Interactive was acquired by Stoddard Hill Capital, and Troy Augustine has succeeded me as the President and Chief Executive Office of iNET Interactive. More details surrounding this transaction can be found in the press release which can be found at http://www.hostingtech.com/?m=show&id=980.

We are excited about Troy’s desire to continue operating iNET in the fashion we have and know he will bring the energy and capital necessary to continue growing iNET Interactive in the years to come.

With this announcement the immediate questions that will undoubtedly be asked revolve around how this will impact this site, the community, and the advertisers. First, Troy and I want to assure you that he does not plan any immediate changes, and changes that do occur in the future will be discussed with community leaders and members in advance. Troy has agreed that he will continue with iNET’s stance on separating advertising from editorial, meaning that the admins and moderators will continue operating as they have in the past. He has also indicated he will continue iNET’s practice of not allowing intrusive pop-up and pop-under advertisements.

You should know that iNET plans to upgrade all of it’s vBulletin sites to the new 3.5 version in the near future. SwishTalk.com and WebHostingTalk.com have already been upgraded. The others will be done in the coming months.

Also, we want to state that the current iNET team continues to operate the company, under the new direction of Troy. While some members of the iNET team will eventually move on to work with other Aberration! Venture investments, some will continue with iNET for the long haul. Gabriel Murphy, iNET’s founder, and myself have committed to a long term consulting and advisory role with Troy.

We anticipate there will be numerous questions with this announcement. As such, Troy and I will make ourselves available for an IRC chat today, Friday November 11, from 4:00 pm Eastern until 5:00 pm Eastern. You can join us at http://www.inetirc.com in the #INET channel during that time.

Ryan, let me congratulate you on this move, and securing the future of communities under iNet management. Stoddard Hill Capital seems to have a very impressive investment team http://www.stoddardhillcapital.com/team.html so no doubt is present that WHT and other great resources have a bright and safe future.

Best,

Never expected that :) Lets hope the new owners do a good job!

Definitely unexpected. Congrats to the new owners.

Cheers

this comes to me as a shock, im suprised this happened

this comes to me as a shock, im suprised this happenedNot really a surprise. Gabriel is quite the entrepeneur, meaning he builds em up and sells em off. It's in his blood. ;)

Congrats on the sale, we'll see how the future plays out round here.

- John C.

. . . we'll see how the future plays out round here.

- John C.Should remain about the same it's been playin' out. :). . . the admins and moderators will continue operating as they have in the past . . .So, it's the same WHT. Just a little different iNET.

. . . Troy and I will make ourselves available for an IRC chat today, Friday November 11, from 4:00 pm Eastern until 5:00 pm Eastern. You can join us at http://www.inetirc.com in the #INET channel during that time.Just quoting this so more members see it. :)

this comes to me as a shock, im suprised this happened

I second that.

I second that.
I'll third that.

congrats !!

Hello Everyone:

I thought I would chime-in here to give some further explanation.

In terms of the shock factor, I presume you are shocked in that you did not see this coming. From my personal perspective this is a good thing- iNET was not distressed or actively looking to sell.

The main focus of Aberration! Ventures, LLC (which owned iNET) is to inject operating efficiencies into businesses along with organic growth initiatives with the intent of exiting from the investment in 3-5 years. In the case of iNET, we were presented with an exit opportunity that made sense for us and achieved our IRR thresholds.

Selling iNET frees up capital and time for us- we have significant plans in other Internet-focused areas relating to niche travel consumer services.

The wonderful benefit to the community is that Stoddard Hill brings additional capital and resources to focus purely on iNET. Their team has a solid reputation and I have the upmost confidence that their plans, whatever they may be, will be beneficial to the advertisers and members of the iNET communities.

To that end, I are exited about the future of iNET, as an observer, future advisor and as the founder of the company.

I would like to thank Ryan, Troy and Mat for the opportunity to let us chat with them. Pleasure speaking with y'all and I believe this will be for the better.

Congratulations iNET, can't wait to see what's ahead in the road labeled iNET :)

I definitely hope WHT doesn't become more commercial than it already is now - over the last year I've seen that happening a bit too much (stickies being sold at insane prices).

Best of luck to you Ryan and Gabriel, and the new owners!

Not really a surprise. Gabriel is quite the entrepeneur, meaning he builds em up and sells em off. It's in his blood. ;)
Damn Capitalists. :D

Congrats to the new owners. Good luck to Ryan and Gabriel with their new adventures. :)

In terms of the shock factor, I presume you are shocked in that you did not see this coming. From my personal perspective this is a good thing- iNET was not distressed or actively looking to sell.

Eh, it's impossible to be shocked (once past a certain age I guess) at news of a privately-held company changing hands in America. "Business as usual" is the term, I believe. Regardless, Gabe, I'd like to thank you for posting that valuable piece of business insight. Best of luck in your future pursuits!

I definitely hope WHT doesn't become more commercial than it already is now - over the last year I've seen that happening a bit too much (stickies being sold at insane prices).
I guess it's just market realities, and as much as what INET can get for the stickies, is what they sell for. Supply and demand set the pricing, and not really INET. They're just trying to get as much as they can, while meeting the market.

As far as shock value, I agree with BigBison. I don't think folks around here would be shocked with this sale. INET's assets have always been operated as just that, as INET themselves weren't emotionally vested into their communities - and that's ok.

Each asset in INET's portfolio is a platform to distribute advertising content, and generate revenue thereof. WHT became a fully fledged serious business, from its early "community" days.

I would like to thank Ryan, Troy and Mat for the opportunity to let us chat with them. Pleasure speaking with y'all and I believe this will be for the better.

Congratulations iNET, can't wait to see what's ahead in the road labeled iNET :)

I cannot wait either- I know it will be both exciting and beneficial for the community. :lovewht:

The beat goes on.... we just have a new drummer. :)

I take it that no comment is being made about the buyout price ?

We made out alright :) We put a little coin in our pocket.

We made out alright :) We put a little coin in our pocket.

No wonder my offer of $10 and two bottle caps was turned down!

Congrats on the sale ;) Knowing that INet was not under any pressure to sell I'm sure you guys chose a great group of people to "pass the torch to".

Sheesh, people are still trying to find out what Robert Marsh paid MattF when rackshack/ev1 took the joint over all that time back. It is really not our business and none of them are gonna tell - ever :P

Looking forward to working with the new/combined team :beer:

Sounds good, hope all goes well.

Can one of the parties involoved with the sale post the selling prive range [XX,XXX... etc]?

- Tomer

Between 1 and 50 million ;)

I guess it's just market realities, and as much as what INET can get for the stickies, is what they sell for. Supply and demand set the pricing, and not really INET. They're just trying to get as much as they can, while meeting the market.

I know I know..

Just stating my personal opinion. I can remember a day it wasn't like "they're just trying to get as much as they can" - even though it makes sense that they do now.

Hey I got to moan about something right.. for I am dutch :D

Well, now this is a shock. And a big one too.... But so far I think that everything is going smooth, no changes around here. We wouldn't even have known that the ownership changed had you not announced this.

Having said that, I wish the new owners luck. :)

I definitely hope WHT doesn't become more commercial than it already is now - over the last year I've seen that happening a bit too much (stickies being sold at insane prices).

Best of luck to you Ryan and Gabriel, and the new owners!
Agreed. Lets hope that some of the subscriptions to use sites like Hostingtech will change too.

. . . We wouldn't even have known that the ownership changed had you not announced this . . .Exactly.

It's just the normal noises in here.

We just have a new conductor. :wht:

We just have a new conductor.

Well said!

Well to be honest I thought it would have been sold earlier, I certainly aren't surprised it was sold. I think one of todays modern business practices is to go into a company get as much money as you can then get out quickly before the rot sets in. I believe Gabriel outlined it a little differently and a lot more elegently but that is basically the way I see it.

Now we have a new owner to communicate with. Could somebody pass me a copy of "How to win friends and influence people" please. :peace:

Doc

I am not suprised at all I remember seeing iNet on ww.bizbuysell.com some time ago , but it quickly dissappeared. Good luck to the new owners I look forward to continuing our advertising relationship.

Are their any changes coming to WHT? Does this affect our community in anyway?

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=460447

That thread should explain everything!

Thanks for the link!

Gl to them!

Go public.

Go public.

Marvelous Idea.

I'll have a couple of bucks worth and throw in a can of coke while your at it.

Doc

I see lot of dollars symbols in this acquisition :)

This site was huge even before rackshack bought it. So it was big when iNet bought it also. Not much improvement in terms of users. I remember when chicken was admin it was still as big as today. Was he the owner of wht back then or what?

. . . I think one of todays modern business practices is to go into a company get as much money as you can then get out quickly before the rot sets in. I believe Gabriel outlined it a little differently and a lot more elegently but that is basically the way I see it.
I didn't see it like that. Gabrial said they got their desired return, and it was time to move elsewhere. I don't see that as abandoning ship or "get out quickly before the rot sets in".

I remember when I sold HTTPme, a competitor published online that I "dropped the business like a hot potato". Good for a laugh, but completely untrue. :rolleyes:

Folks sell business for lots of reasons, and it's never an easy decision, but opens doors to other avenues of business. I have no regrets. :)

. . . I remember when chicken was admin it was still as big as today. Was he the owner of wht back then or what?
No, chicken was never an owner of WHT. Chicken was the head mod. Mattf owned WHT and he sold to headsurfer (Robert Marsh) who inturn flipped it to INET, who added it into their media portfolio and sold to a Private Equity Group.

With each owner change, WHT has become more focussed on the revenue side of the business. The new owners of WHT will have one thing in mind, and that is to make a return on their investment, with all the media properties they purchased with INET. Not that there's anything wrong with that. :)

I remember when chicken was admin it was still as big as today.
Well maybe 90,000 odd less members ;)

Well maybe 90,000 odd less members ;)
But I wonder with how many active members though. WHT was pretty busy back then too, so it would be interesting to see some active member comparison stats, if that's possible.

Yeah should be possible. Let me think on the best way to do it.

I see lot of dollars symbols in this acquisition :)
Yeah, I'm sure they got their return needed to justify the sale. :)

Cool. :)

Comparing active stats now, from back to around June 2002, would be interesting. I think that was when Matt sold to Robert. :uhh:

There is a Statistics options in the Statistics and Logs section of the admin CP. Click that, Click New Post Statistics and hopefully you can view monthly figures for the last several years of the new posts. Would be interesting to see what it started off and and if there has been growth over the last few years.

Based on what I keyed in between Jan 01 to Feb 02 in 2003, the results back then were 671 and in the last month 5076.

Jan, what's the definition of an active member, in those stats?

There'd be no doubt that WHT is much larger than it was when Matt sold to headsurfer.

There is a Statistics options in the Statistics and Logs section of the admin CP. Click that, Click New Post Statistics and hopefully you can view monthly figures for the last several years of the new posts. Would be interesting to see what it started off and and if there has been growth over the last few years.
It doesn't have those stats unfortunately, it has recent, but not the earlier ones.

Bob, that was active in a one month period back then and this month past.

Wow, I go on vacation and WHT gets sold (again).


With each owner change, WHT has become more focussed on the revenue side of the business. The new owners of WHT will have one thing in mind, and that is to make a return on their investment, with all the media properties they purchased with INET. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Eventually, there will be no more "focus" on the revenue side of things, it'll be all revenue , and no freebies. Unfortunately, there's only so far you can push the limits of this. Sure, I understand that money has to be made back, and individuals really have no true interest in WHT, or anything else they buy, it's a business to them, but at some point, it'll become ALL business, which doesn't really help the "community" aspect of things.

What concerns me, though isn't the fact that it was sold, but that it was sold to a company who's been on the "market" just over a year. We'll have to see just how well this place withstands yet another sale, and another one after that I'm sure.

Bob, that was active in a one month period back then and this month past.
Sorry to jump in here. But by "active", do you mean logged in (browse) or post? Thanks.

By the way, I honestly hope WHT would only become *healthier* with this ownership transfer; and yes, it has been, will be and should be operated as a business anyway.

. . . Eventually, there will be no more "focus" on the revenue side of things, it'll be all revenue . . .
You know, if the new owners of WHT want to make more money, they need to deliver us a better experience. If the new WHT owners are reading this - better experience = more money for you. :)
What concerns me, though isn't the fact that it was sold, but that it was sold to a company who's been on the "market" just over a year. We'll have to see just how well this place withstands yet another sale, and another one after that I'm sure.
I think WHT can withstand this change. Let's face it, INET stayed pretty much out of WHT and let the mods do their thang.

should be operated as a business anyway.

With a forum, you're never going to get the "business" aspect of that 100%, until you close the door (god forbid) to freebies and start charging everyone on a monthly/yearly basis for this. Of course, that's always a possibility, but as it is (currently), there would be no benefit to users for that.

A business is run solely for profit, a commnity is not, it's a group of individuals who have gathered together for whatever reason, and as such have dozens of different voices (no, not the ones in your head ;)) that should be listened to.


You know, if the new owners of WHT want to make more money, they need to deliver us a better experience.

Agreed, 100% . Hopefully those behind the "new" ownership of WHT are listening and actually more responsive than iNet has been in the past ;).


I think WHT can withstand this change.

Sure, WHT can withstand the change, but one of the points there is that this is just a young (new) company. Sure, they had a lot of upfront cash to buy the place (they'd have had to), but that doesn't mean they're in business for any sort of a "long haul" as it were..

Maybe now we can get those premium member things fixed, and someone will start working on host quote though ;). Only time will tell I guess.

until you close the door (god forbid) to freebies and start charging everyone on a monthly/yearly basis
Not necessarily so. And almost every for-profit business prefers to project a sense of community among its users anyway. Nothing wrong actually, just remember that it's a money-making investment and not some social services. ;)

Who ever said that WHT got sold? I didn't see that. iNet Interactive was sold, not WHT. So, WHT's parent company got sold. Hope no one is confused. :D

iNet Interactive was sold, not WHT.

Inet was sold, however WHT is owned by inet, meaning that whoever owns inet now owns WHT. Henceforth, yes, WHT was sold, along with INet.

I'm sure there were some pretty good properties in there, but WHT had to be one of the key properties in the sale. Between this place and hotscripts, the two had to be pretty key ;)

Not sure what to make of the news? Is this a good thing?

Not sure what to make of the news? Is this a good thing?

Only time will tell...

I think everything will be fine.



:lovewht:

well done... good luck with future ventures.

wow. Someone got rich in this deal.

Are their any changes coming to WHT? Does this affect our community in anyway?

Just a couple more millionaires made is all, nothing to worry about. :agree:

But I wonder with how many active members though. WHT was pretty busy back then too, so it would be interesting to see some active member comparison stats, if that's possible.
It seems everyone forgot the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine ;)

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.webhostingtalk.com

Ha, check out the style in the year 2000, lot's of progression since then.

It seems everyone forgot the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine ;)

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.webhostingtalk.com

Ha, check out the style in the year 2000, lot's of progression since then.


lot's of progression since then ?? depends on ones definition of progress.

Doc

congrads, We will miss you guys, but also we welcome new owners with open arms

wow. Someone got rich in this deal.
Interesting what they did with INET. Formed a advertising distribution company, then went about purchasing existing communities, and built the ad_platform around that. So the INET machine consists of assets like WHT, and those assets drive the advertising platform. So INET built a platform for distributing advertising, in vertical markets.

I'm sure they got a good return, otherwise they wouldn't have sold. :)

I hope the new INET owners know a thing or 2 about the online world. Being a "Private Equity Group", brings up images of suits, who know stuff all about the net, but just see the numbers.

We'll see how this goes. :erm:

I was a bit taken aback when WHT witnessed a short downtime. But at present, everything seems to be going fine.

I was a bit taken aback when WHT witnessed a short downtime. But at present, everything seems to be going fine.
Durned technology.

It's the internet. Things happen.


:alien:

Let's hope the new INET owners don't skimp on the rackspace setup. Lots of $$$ being spent there, but you need that massive backend, for all their assets to hum along. I hope the suits don't start cost cutting, and revenue raising. :erm:

Let's hope the new INET owners don't skimp on the rackspace setup. Lots of $$$ being spent there, but you need that massive backend, for all their assets to hum along. I hope the suits don't start cost cutting, and revenue raising. :erm:

I wonder how many servers it takes to run this website? And the bandwidth! I shiver thinking about how much money it takes to run this website.


:lovewht:

There was a post ages ago by INET, going into some of the detail of their rackspace setup. I imagine it's grown a bit since then, but all the INET properties (I think) were hosted on that platform.

I think by any reasonable measuring stick (revenue growth, member growth, page view growth, unique visitor growth, Google PR, Alexa Rank), there has been substantial progression.

I predict the same progression going forward.

what about yaxay

So how much did they sell for? I don't see why they would hide the buyout price :S

So how much did they sell for? I don't see why they would hide the buyout price :S
That's pretty standard practice in most sales. But if they're willing to disclose, I'm interested in knowing how much too. :D

I just hope that the site is not e-whored out anymore with more additional advertisments as I think we are about maxxed out on space already.

It would also be nice to hear some words from the actual guys in the fancy suits as to what they plan on doing with this place as others have (Headsurfer, Inet etc)

well stunning news to media and i did not expect this

What is Troy Augustine's asking price for WHT ?

Can all the members here combine forces by forking out US$100 each to buy it from Troy? All of us here could be the proud co-owners of WHT.

:D

koushibasaki, do a little searching, this was already proposed.

What is Troy Augustine's asking price for WHT ?

Can all the members here combine forces by forking out US$100 each to buy it from Troy? All of us here could be the proud co-owners of WHT.

:D

It would take a few members..... quite a few. :agree:

But it would be worth it i think helping inet even more than we do now Gab!!

:)

Investors want returns. And this sometimes leads to very unfortunate moves made by the invested companies to meet investors' demands. This unfortunately has happened to many i.t., and particularly gaming related legends in the past of the internet. I hope this case does not repeat itself here. Wht is a real hub for the internet hosting, space and bw providing industry, and anything here might impact the industry in the long run as well.

What is Troy Augustine's asking price for WHT ?

Can all the members here combine forces by forking out US$100 each to buy it from Troy? All of us here could be the proud co-owners of WHT.

:D

I'm guessing that was tongue-in-cheek but the last thing WHT needs is a bunch of hot-headed teenagers screaming about "owning this place" when the break the rules. Even if it did happen, the "owners" would have to appoint (and of course, pay) a management team... problem is, I think the current management team seems more than qualified for the job.

As for the anti-capitolism sentiments... how many of those complaining own a company that offers their services without pay or advertisement? WHT is 100% a business, and if the owners see it as unprofitable, it can and would disappear into the land of unsuccessful companies.