MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Thinking of selling your hosting business?
We track this market host by host, and we know who is buying. Introductions are free, commission-free, and confidential.
- 60 takeovers followed
- No commission
- Confidential
We know both sides of the table.
01 · YOUR BUSINESS
Tell us about your business
A few fields, none of them intrusive: they tell us who in our network is looking for exactly what you have. Everything is optional except your name and email.
02 · VALUE
What might your hosting business be worth?
Revenue tells you the size of the business. Its profitability, how loyal its customers are and whether it runs without you determine most of its value.
THE STARTING FORMULA, FOR A PROFITABLE BUSINESS
The result then has to be checked against recurring revenue, the investment the business needs, and the shape of the customer book.
Which multiples to expect?
An indicative grid, to place a first conversation. The categories overlap: no revenue threshold guarantees a multiple.
Starting points, not a price list.A declining business, or one needing serious catch-up investment, can trade below. The large platforms can exceed these ranges without being relevant comparables for an independent host.
Selling a book rather than the company?That is a different analysis: transferable revenue, margin retained, expected renewals and the cost of migration.
Size does not set the multiple, but it changes who is at the table. Below roughly €1M of revenue buyers are usually individuals paying with their own money; above it they are groups that borrow, and above €10M the consolidators compete with one another. That is the mechanical reason a €20M host does not sell on the same numbers as a €2M one — not a better business, a deeper pool of buyers.
Adjusted EBITDA: the number to prepare before talking price
EBITDA measures profit before interest, tax and depreciation. In a sale, what a buyer really wants is a normalised, repeatable annual profit. Adjustments typically cover:
- +Genuinely exceptional, documented expenses.
- ±Owner pay above or below what a replacement would cost.
- −Costs that are necessary today but absent from the accounts.
- −One-off income that will not repeat.
Owner pay is not simply added back to profit if somebody has to be hired to do that work.
RUN THE NUMBERS editable example
Adjusted EBITDA100 000 €
Hypothetical multiple to ×
ENTERPRISE VALUE400 000 € – 500 000 €
EBITDA is not all the cash available: server refresh, software investment and working capital have to be looked at too.
And revenue multiples?
Recurring revenue is a second way of reading the same business. But a euro of domain revenue does not necessarily carry the same margin as a euro of shared hosting or managed services. The link between the two methods is simple:
Revenue multiple = EBITDA multiple × EBITDA margin
Same revenue of €500,000, same hypothetical 5 × EBITDA — only the margin changes.
At identical revenue, profitability can therefore move the value considerably. These are illustrative calculations, not observed transactions. Comparing recurring revenue also means separating recognised revenue, invoices issued and cash collected: a subscription paid three years up front is not three years of revenue in the year it was banked.
03 · THE ANALYSIS
What a buyer analyses before making an offer
Four areas. Tick the ones you could already document: that is what moves the first conversation forward.
0 / 4
Nothing ticked yet
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01
Revenue quality and renewals
A buyer will want to understand how monthly revenue moved over 24 to 36 months, how it splits by product, and how much of it is genuinely recurring.
- Customer churn
- The share of customers lost over a period.
- Gross revenue retention
- Revenue kept on the starting book, excluding upsells.
- Net revenue retention
- Revenue kept once upgrades, expansions and contractions are counted.
Strong recent acquisition does not demonstrate good retention. Customer cohorts — grouped by when they signed — show what survives the first renewals.
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02
Margin by product family
The analysis covers infrastructure costs, licences, registrars, commissions and support. A product that bills a lot but ties up a team can contribute less than a smaller, automated book.
TO SEPARATE Shared hostingManaged WordPressVPSDedicated serversDomainsOne-off work
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03
Technical and operational handover
How well the environment fits drives the cost and risk of integration. A buyer will also look at supplier commitments, hardware condition, security procedures, incidents and documentation.
ENVIRONMENT WHMCS or other billingcPanel / PleskVirtualisationBackupsDNSEmailIn-house code
Future savings should be assessed after migration costs and risks.
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04
Owner dependency and customer concentration
The point is to identify which functions must transfer, and what they cost. Likewise, losing a large customer has to be measured in revenue — and in margin.
- Who is on call?
- Who holds the critical credentials?
- Who maintains the relationships with the largest customers?
04 · THE PRICE
The headline price is not always the cash received at signing
In a share sale, enterprise value and equity value are two different things. Put simply:
Equity value = enterprise value + cash retained under the agreement − debt and debt-like items ± agreed adjustments
An enterprise value of €750,000, plus €80,000 of cash and less €130,000 of debt, gives an equity value of €700,000 — before any other adjustments, fees and tax.
THE AGREEMENT MUST ALSO SET OUT THE SHARE THAT IS…
- At completion Paid when the sale is signed.
- On a schedule Paid later, on agreed dates.
- Earn-out Conditional on future results.
- Held in escrow Possibly held back to cover risks.
A nominally higher offer is therefore not necessarily the better one. The certain amount, the schedule and the payment conditions matter as much as the multiple.
THE POINT SPECIFIC TO HOSTING
Subscriptions collected up front
When a customer has paid one or more years in advance, part of the service is still owed after the sale: the buyer carries the future cost without having received the cash. How deferred revenue, working capital and cash are treated must be set out in the agreement. There is no automatic deduction that applies to every deal, and the same obligation must not be counted twice in the adjustments.
Preparing a first conversation
the data that helps first- 01Revenue for the last three years
- 02Current recurring revenue
- 03Estimated EBITDA
- 04Active customers
- 05Renewal rate
05 · OUR ROLE
What we do, and what we don’t
WE DO
WE DON’T
- 0 €commission
- 0mandate required
- 0exclusivity
- 0public listing
Why free? We build this network because it serves our work as a comparison site: knowing who owns what is exactly what we document. And confidential: your name reaches nobody without your explicit agreement, deal by deal — a sale that leaks scares customers away before it attracts a buyer.
06 · THE MARKET
What we have watched happen
Our running watch on this market: hosts that changed hands, and hosts that closed. We did not read it in the press — we follow their pages, their prices and their servers.
60taken over by someone else 96closed with no buyer
A host that waits too long does not get sold: it closes.
Its customers rehouse themselves, and the value goes with them.
WHO BUYS THE MOSTtakeovers we followed
- Network Solutions 8
- Hosting.com 4
- HostPapa 4
- ExactHosting 3
- Hostway 3
- Equinix 2
Who owns whom, group by group: the market’s consolidators.
Taken over
- A2 Hosting taken over Hosting.com
- Alpha Hosting taken over Liquid Web
- Baremetal taken over i3D.net
- Bluedomino taken over Network Solutions
- Byte (devenu Hypernode) taken over Hypernode
- ClickHost taken over ExactHosting
- Cloudways taken over DigitalOcean
- Codero taken over Patmos
- Datapipe taken over Rackspace
- DedicatedNow taken over Hosting.com
- Downtown Host taken over Ex2
- Eapps taken over CloudScale365
- easyCGI taken over Network Solutions
- Edge Hosting taken over DataBank
- Equinix Telecity taken over Equinix
- Fast Domain taken over Bluehost
- FTP Hosting taken over Files.com
- FTP Today taken over ShareTru
- H4Y Technologies taken over IWFHosting
- Heart Internet taken over 123 Reg
- Host my site taken over Hostway
- Hostbaby taken over HearNow
- HostMDS taken over Hosting.com
- iHost taken over HostPapa
- Internet Planners taken over ExactHosting
- iPower taken over Network Solutions
- Jaguar Network taken over Free Pro
- Jumpline taken over HostPapa
- LFC Hosting taken over HostPapa
- Lighthouse taken over Litehouse.co
- Linode taken over Akamai
- logic works taken over RapidScale
- Media Temple taken over GoDaddy
- MMA taken over HostChain
- Myhosting taken over Hostway
- Myhosting.com taken over Hostway
- OLM Cloud Hosting taken over Entirely Digital
- One Neck taken over US Signal
- One World Hosting taken over ExactHosting
- Online Tech taken over Otava
- Parcom Web Hosting taken over PSPINC
- PCextreme taken over Versio
- Peak 10 + ViaWest taken over Flexential
- Ready Hosting taken over Network Solutions
- ServerCentral taken over Summit Hosting
- SingleHop taken over HorizonIQ
- Skysphere taken over RingSquared
- SoHosted taken over Yourhosting
- StartLogic taken over Network Solutions
- telecity group taken over Equinix
- Titan Internet taken over Easyspace
- Tsohost taken over 123 Reg
- United Hosting taken over Hosting UK
- Verio taken over Network Solutions
- VPS Link taken over Network Solutions
- Webserve taken over HostPapa
- Windstream Business taken over Uniti Group
- Worldbreak taken over Hosting.com
- Xeran Technologies taken over Network Solutions
- Zuver taken over nobody
Closed
- 1 Colony
- 100% NET
- 1st Easy
- 1st Host Web
- 20MegsFREE
- 34SP
- 5GBHosting
- 7 Host
- AZC
- Bounce Web
- Calligo
- Cartika
- cyberhost
- Datarealm
- DomainAvenue.com
- DomainHost
- Dynamic Hosting
- eHost
- Enlighten
- EntryHost
- Exai
- Fast Web Host
- Fate Back
- FluidOne
- Fpweb
- FutureQuest
- Good Avocado
- Gr8Web.net
- Host Depot
- Host Excellence
- Host.ie
- Host1
- Hostada
- HostingMatters
- Hostopia.com
- HyperMart
- i2k2 Networks (P) Ltd.
- Ihost
- Intermip
- Internap
- iPowerWeb
- ISQSolutions
- JCLE
- JSP Zone
- JSPzone.net
- Kionic
- LaWebHosting
- Local Web
- Lunarpages
- Lycos
- M24Seven
- Mod West
- Nationalnet
- NEI Hosting
- Net Atlantic
- NetAspects
- Netfronts
- Netregistry
- Nordic Hosting
- OneNetwork
- Orgsites
- Oxito
- Pantek
- pSend
- Radical Vision
- Rebel IST
- RousellHost
- S Naidu tech
- Server Intellect
- Service Centre
- Site Palace
- Softlayer
- Softlayer – IBM
- Softlayer – IBM
- Storm On Demand
- Terra network
- Tierra
- Tophost
- Umbrellar
- W3 Media
- W3Media.net
- Web Fusion
- Web Hosting Service
- web net 77
- WebECS
- Webhero
- WebSecureStores
- Webstar India
- Webvisions
- Webzilla
- Wolf Web Solutions
- XO Communications
- Yahoo
- YorkUKHosting
- Zero Lag
- ZeroStopBits
No host matches your search.
Our own watch, cross-checked with our review pages — the names that link through are the ones we cover. “Taken over” means the brand continued under a new owner, or disappeared into it.
07 · INDEPENDENCE
The question you should ask
THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST
We rate hosting companies, and we offer a service to hosting companies. Writing to us changes nothing about your rating, in either direction.
It is computed from measurements and customer reviews, under a published method. Refusing to talk to us changes nothing either. And since we take no commission, we have no interest in one deal happening rather than another. Same commitment as for our affiliate links, written in the same place: our methodology (in French).
More of our measurements in English: what we measure, including hosting renewal prices.
Ready to talk, even without a date in mind? Tell us about your business →