Today’s lead goes to an article from September 28, courtesy of Bloomberg, Endurance International Group Revives Possible Sale Talks: “The web-hosting company is working with an adviser on options, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. No final decisions have been made and Endurance may choose to remain a public company, according to the people.” If you don’t know Endurance International Group (EIG), you should, they own one of the largest WordPress hosting companies in the world, Bluehost, as well as HostGator. Wikipedia has a list of acquisitions you can review.

How would this effect anyone hosting on any of the brands? Probably zero impact. By going private the majority shareholders maybe looking to cash out with a private sale to another firm as well as get out of the regulatory reporting and scrutiny business. Who could afford such an acquisition given the current valuation of approximately $860 million (NASDAQ:EIGI)? Well you do have GoDaddy at a market cap of $13.45 billion (NYSE:GDDY), United Internet $7.76 billion (OTCMKTS:UDIRF), or Deluxe Corporation $1.063B (NYSE:DLX). Or some private equity firm. You could also look at Automattic (who just did a partnership with Constant Contact, an Endurance company) or WP Engine. These two are flush with cash but I don’t necessarily see either one looking to add Bluehost, etc. as offerings.

BigScoots: Personal. Expert. Always There. That’s Real Managed Hosting.

Partnerships Everywhere

There has been a veritable cornucopia of partnership action happening of the last six months. While there have been some announcements that are bigger than others, this “consolidation” of hosting companies, agencies, and SaaS providers has been interesting to watch.

It’s smart for a number of reasons, especially given 2020’s uncertainty, but also a sign of a bigger trend to align with specific firms to maximize marketing power, increase solutions, and drive sales. Let’s take a look at what’s been transacted recently.

WordPress VIP has been the most active with 23 (!!!) agency and technology partners added since January 2020. We have Convesio partnering with Human Presence and Cloudflare. WooCommerce and Constant Contact previously mentioned. Yoast and SEMrush. I’m working toward a end of the year round up and partnerships and acquisitions so this is just a drop in the bucket.