Due to personal issues I no longer have time to give my company the time it deserves. I have therefore decided to sell it. The specifications are as follows:

73 total accounts - 72 shared web hosting account 1 dedicated server account

30 accounts are billed monthly paying between $8.99 and $24.99 per month

42 accounts are billed annually paying between $44.99 and $249.99 (only 7 pay less than $89.99 per year)

1 account pays quarterly at $14.97

1 dedicated server account which is a barter agreement (server for advertising on customer's portal site)

Of these accounts 51 pay by credit card 22 by check.

Total annual gross revenue for these accounts is approximately $8500.00.

These customers are hosted on three dedicated servers leased at Dialtone Internet costing approximately $550 per month. I use a modified version of webmin as a CP. These accounts could be converted to most any CP.

My company has been in business since November 1999. These customers are what I would consider to be loyal good customers most of whom have been customers for at least a year. Most of the accounts are low volume as far as data transfer goes (less than 1 Gb per month). Only two consistantly use over 5 Gb per month. Support requests are also relatively low, usually one or two requests per week.

This company can be sold as a whole (website, domain name, customer base) or customer base alone. It does NOT include my merchant account.

Please send inquiries to me by PM or e-mail. A signed NDA will be required.

deleted by poster

How much would you consider selling the clients for?

Same question, would be interested in the clients.

My initial asking price is $9500 for the customer base as a whole. I do not wish to break up the customers in pieces or sell them individually.

Also, I am going to be unable to answer e-mail until tomorrow morning. If you send me mail I will respond.

Thanks.

not sure if this is relevant or not but i am not sure what formula you arrived at an asking price of 9500.00. based on your gross revs... that is a little steep. (actually a lot)

the standing acquisition formula is as follows:

(gross revs/mo - costs/mo) x 12 = acquisition price
ex: (1000 monthy groos rev - 400 monthly cost) x 12 = 7200

basically: NET PROFIT/mo x 12 = ~acquisition price

for some reason i think you are basing your price on your GROSS profit which is insanity. anyone who is looking into purchasing this company (or it's client base) may want to do do some hard number crunching before they go cutting a check.

i would be very interested in this company if the numbers made sense and were actually based on standard formulas, etc...

... just my 2 cents

Where are you getting these "standard formulas" ?

Excuse my ignorance, I just never knew there was a standard to go by. 9500 seems fairly reasonable considering the size of the customer base. IMHO

Well there is never a "standard formula" to calculate a purchase price, but there certainly are guidelines.

In this case, total annual revenue is $8500. Total annual server cost is $6600. Gross annual profit $1900. A selling price of $9500 means a ROI of 5 years. I don't know about you, but that is way out of line for any purchase.

Even if you were able to reduce the server cost by half, the ROI would still be just under 2 years.

And that's not even taking into account the cost of tech support, administration, etc.

Overpriced, if you ask me.

Vito

Originally posted by vito

.... Overpriced, if you ask me.

Vito

THIS WAS MY WHOLE POINT! except the difference was that i presented it with facts based upon formulas that ARE ACTUALLY in use and not solely on my opinion!

actually, there are formulas. do we all think that acquisition prices are pulled out of our a** ? perhaps a little research will lead you to the basic formula that i presented above.

regardless... the point i was making is that this person is way out of whack on their asking price for this small of a company in the hosting industry. the people who can actually afford to make acquisitions over 10K will all tell you that they arrive at their offer with a similar/variation of the one i described above.

clearly there are exceptions depending upon the assets involved in the sale, but for the most part it still applies.

Originally posted by GlideTech
Where are you getting these "standard formulas" ?

Excuse my ignorance, I just never knew there was a standard to go by. 9500 seems fairly reasonable considering the size of the customer base. IMHO

refer to my last post above ... and i am not trying to slam anyone... but in business (especialy the hosting industry where tiny buyouts like this occur daily) there have to be formulas to come up with a basic offer. a little research will validate.

Originally posted by vito
In this case, total annual revenue is $8500. Total annual server cost is $6600. Gross annual profit $1900. A selling price of $9500 means a ROI of 5 years. I don't know about you, but that is way out of line for any purchase.

Even if you were able to reduce the server cost by half, the ROI would still be just under 2 years.

Vito

CORRECTION:

actually i think you are confusing a "break even point" with ROI. a break even point is not the same definition of ROI. a clear misuse in this above quote.

ROI cannot exist until the break even point is surpassed & in your thought process, i think you meant that it would take a min. of 5 (or 2 depending on your example) years to break even. then it is actually possible to incur ROI.

does anyone have formal business education/degrees & experience besides me?

nate:
It is extremely irritating reading through your pompous posts. If you hadn't noticed I was actually agreeing with you. If you feel that you must talk down to other WHT members to validate yourself, then perhaps you should find another coffe shop to frequent.

actually, there are formulas. do we all think that acquisition prices are pulled out of our a** ? perhaps a little research will lead you to the basic formula that i presented above.
Actually, the "formula" most adhered to nowadays is 6 months net profit, not 12 months as you suggest. So might I suggest that you do more research?

does anyone have formal business education/degrees & experience besides me?

I think you understood the point I was trying to make. Why do you have to be so anal in your remarks? Condascending remarks only belittle you, not your target.

I've owned and operated businesses for the last 22 years. The last thing I'm in the mood for is some self-important narcissist who gets off on belittling other people's comments, regardless of their merit in order to aggrandize himself.

Geez... :rolleyes:

Originally posted by vito
nate:
It is extremely irritating reading through your pompous posts. If you hadn't noticed I was actually agreeing with you. If you feel that you must talk down to other WHT members to validate yourself, then perhaps you should find another coffe shop to frequent.


in case you have not noticed... this is a public forum for people in the hosting industry.... and since those are the qualifications ... i guess i am free to post here if i like.... thanks :)



Actually, the "formula" most adhered to nowadays is 6 months net profit, not 12 months as you suggest. So might I suggest that you do more research?


not sure where you got that from or if you have done any acquisitions of hosting companies in the past... but i do not know of to many hosts selling for 6 months of gross profit



I think you understood the point I was trying to make. Why do you have to be so anal in your remarks? Condascending remarks only belittle you, not your target.


i am not trying to be anal.. but blatent misunderstanding/misuse of standard financial terms can lead to the confusion of other readers. heaven forbid we all just start throwing the term ROI around for anything we like.


I've owned and operated businesses for the last 22 years. The last thing I'm in the mood for is some self-important narcissist who gets off on belittling other people's comments, regardless of their merit in order to aggrandize himself.

Geez... :rolleyes:

lol... if you are not in the mood to post correct information, then i suggest you leave that to the rest of us who understand said topic. that way at least people are less likely to be confused.

:cartman: :cartman: thanks for playing :cartman: :cartman:

Yet another thread, off the deep end. :eek:

lol... if you are not in the mood to post correct information, then i suggest you leave that to the rest of us who understand said topic. that way at least people are less likely to be confused.
"Not in the mood to post correct information"? I don't believe I ever said that. Perhaps you should re-read my post.

If you notice that someone's post needs correction/clarification, I suggest you'll find your comments more readily welcome if you just spare us all the self-righteous attitude.

Invest in a bit of civility, nate. You should see a good ROI. I almost guarantee it.

Vito

Originally posted by vito

"Not in the mood to post correct information"? I don't believe I ever said that. Perhaps you should re-read my post.


no need to re-read your post because the fact is you posted incorrect information from the get go... hence my correction on the ROI acronym use.


Invest in a bit of civility, nate. You should see a good ROI. I almost guarantee it.

Vito

wow... maybe my post did help someone ... you used the acronym correctly! ;)

.... maybe this thread can get back on topic now ... good luck with the sale!

.....

Yet another thread that goes way off the road. :rolleyes:

Please PM or e-mail the original poster if you have any inquiries regarding the sale.

Thread closed.