
GoDaddy Buys Media Temple - recusancy
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/godaddy-buys-media-temple-to-build-up-its-business-with-web-professionals/
======
bbx
Media Temple was the first hosting service I remembered the name. It was
around 2007, when I started web design. I was immediately fascinated by their
brand, their design, and their philosophy. It looked honest _and_ reliable. I
actually never had the opportunity to become a customer because I didn't need
an American-based server (I live in Europe)...

Well... until a month ago. I finally had a project that required a server
based in North America. I chose MT quite rapidly, feeling confident about my
decision and/or not caring enough to analyze the market.

And today, this (not so good) news. GoDaddy has had a very bad press for the
last couple of years, and it seems like the philosophy gap between the two
companies will be hard to handle. I guess it's just bad timing on my behalf
but I'll try to stick to MT for the beginning.

Although yesterday I would have indisputably pursued my experience with MT for
many years, I will now closely watch any subtle change in their customer
policy and probably leave at the first signs of trouble, no matter how slight
they can appear.

~~~
larrys
I originally started using MT because it was what Techcrunch used at the time
when they started and iirc a few years after.

------
rwhitman
I have no love for Media Temple, but have so many client sites there that this
really affects me. Just when I thought MT was improving they go and do this.

That line about it staying "independent" is total crap. I stupidly got locked
into Outright and now a year or so after their acquisition by GoDaddy its now
magically "GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping" and they want to link it with my
GoDaddy account. Independent my ass. So now GoDaddy has all my business
records sitting next to my MT accounts, old domain names etc. Ugh

~~~
ohashi
It's always interesting to hear people talking about trends they see in a web
hosting company. The first thing I do is check and see if their experience
actually matches what I see in the data.

[http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/23/mediatemple/](http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/23/mediatemple/)
(click 'Trends')

I don't see much evidence of 'improving' but it looks fairly stable. It will
be very interesting to watch what happens after today though.

I've been watching
[http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/33/asmallorange/](http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/33/asmallorange/)
because they are in a similar situation but half a year ahead of MT. They were
bought out by EIG (Endurance International Group - which own HostGator,
BlueHost, Host Monster, etc) back in March. They've been run independently and
their service seems to have improved (cue EIG hate here). It's easy to craft
stories, but I always like to see the data.

~~~
maguay
That's ominous on A Small Orange — didn't realize that. Great.

~~~
ohashi
I try to keep an open mind about these things and just look at the data. So
far, they seem to be doing even better under EIG but run independently. I hope
it continues that way but I will just keep watching and write about it if it
starts to change.

------
codereflection
I wonder how this is going to affect the jquery.com site, which has been
hosted on MT forever.

I have a strong hatred for GoDaddy, and will never consider Media Temple for
any of their services now. Sorry MT guys, I just hate GoDaddy THAT much.

~~~
mtMattNL
I get where the strong feelings come from, but time does change things (be it
better or worse). We think they are going in the right direction, and we're
going to work on getting even better.

~~~
ISeemToBeAVerb
The thing is, you are who you associate yourself with.

Until GoDaddy actually proves they've turned a new leaf, I think you're going
to have a hard time convincing your customers (myself included) that this
acquisition is about anything other than money.

It takes momentous effort to turn around a notoriously bad brand, and with
such fierce competition, there will need to be some serious benefits to
convince me to stick with MT.

Truth be told, if your service is comparable to other services, I'd rather not
give my money to a company owned by GoDaddy.

~~~
mtMattNL
I see where you are coming from, and money is definitely important. That cash
flow is going to help us build our staff and our products. We understand the
skepticism, but we are working on making things a lot better here.

~~~
astrowilliam
Speaking as an independent web developer and having hosted with MT in the past
with a higher level product, I can tell you that I will not be coming back any
time soon.

I am going to take the wait and see approach as I don't trust GoDaddy.

------
recusancy
Media Temple's brand destroyed by one press release.

~~~
mtMattNL
Matt from (mt) here. Sorry that you feel that way, but we assure everybody
that it's a good thing. We're not making any major changes at the company, and
we're going to have 10 times the resources to make better products.

~~~
rwhitman
No. Sure you get more money, but this is going to be absolutely toxic to your
company culture. Now every employee at the company has to wake up and know
that they're going to work at GoDaddy, a company that supported SOPA and PIPA
a company that was founded by an obnoxious redneck who has a video blog of
exploited blonde bimbos doing comedy shtick, a company that took a successful
female NASCAR racer and exploited her as a sex object as their spokesperson, a
company that outsources all of their customer service to India. The list goes
on and on. Who's going to feel good about working there after that?

~~~
jamesbritt
I'm pretty sure the female NASCAR driver was a knowing and willing participant
who received compensation for her actions. So, not exploited.

Not that this discounts the scummery of GoDaddy.

------
mtMattNL
I was going to post person by person, but I figured a general post with all
the info would be a better option. So here it goes...

We're definitely excited about the move. We know GoDaddy may have had a not so
stellar reputation in the past, but we're very happy with the changes they've
made this year. Along with that, we are very happy to get the funding and
resources we need to make bigger and better products. We want to put out
better products with the same style and flare, and we can now do it a lot
better and a lot faster. Our support isn't changing, products aren't changing,
and the only real big change today is that we're getting cake and lunch on the
house.

Feel free to shoot any questions at me, or check out our weblog for a FAQ
[http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-
goda...](http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-godaddy-
acquisition/)

~~~
mikeho1999
Matt, first of all, thanks to you and your team for posting in the comments on
sites like HN, TechCrunch, and all the other sites where the news is starting
to hit the tech community. I know it can't be easy to read so many critical
comments against a company that I am sure has been a great place for you to
work at.

However, I think trying to spin things as "everything at (mt) will be the
same... only better" is a bit of a disservice to the tech community you are
trying to reach out to, which is inherently more savvy about the reasoning and
justification behind the acquisition itself.

In short: No company ever sets out to acquire another company to just keep
things the same.

I do not doubt that in the _short term_ , not much will change. But starting
within the next year or so, there is no doubt in anyone's minds that the
combined leadership team of GD and (mt) will begin to capitalize on business,
product and technological "synergies" to help increase the bottom line.

That's not a knock against you, GD, (mt) or anyone. That's just business.

But what does that mean for all of your existing (mt) customers?

GoDaddy's modus operandi of profit maximization through questionable-at-best
marketing practices, minimizing costs in customer and technical support, and
taking any short cuts possible even at the detriment of the customer, does
appear completely at odds with the high value of support and refined products
that (mt) had prided itself over the years.

So the $400M question (or however much the acquisition was for) is: can these
vastly different approaches of your business models be reconciled at all? Or
will one way end up "winning out" over the other way? And if it's the latter,
who will end up "winning out"... the GoDaddy way, or the (mt) way?

I do apologize if I come up to some of my own conclusions ahead of time, but I
hope you guys can prove me wrong. But as I am now an outsider looking in, it
ultimately won't make too much of a difference to me -- I actually have been
in the process (and am nearly complete) in moving all of my clients off of
GoDaddy to AWS (for completely unrelated reasons, mostly dealing with
pricing).

But as someone who had been a customer for over 8 years and as someone who had
been an advocate for (mt), I couldn't help from having the feeling of "whew, I
just dodged a bullet" after hearing this news.

~~~
mtMattNL
Good question. Some things I will have answers for, others I'm not 100% on.
I'll go point by point.

1\. The spin isn't really intended. GoDaddy is a huge fan of our services, and
they intend to keep it independent so that our team can improve on what we
currently have. We'll also be able to hire better people (not putting our team
down), but it's always been the motto here to hire people that are smarter
than us.

2\. Existing customers- nothing is changing. Seriously. Prices aren't going
up, control panel isn't changing, and we're not going to be emailing you every
day.

3\. Our team said yes to this merger because they like the direction their new
team is taking. If we can inject some of our flair into what they are doing,
even better. In the end though, you aren't going to see a combination of the
logos.

4\. "winning out" \- If i could predict the future, I'd be traveling the world
comfortably right now. :) I've been here for three years now, and I trust that
things aren't going in that direction.

I appreciate the concern, and we're impressed that so many people care (even
if sentiment sways negatively). We're not here to ride our horses into the
sunset with bags of money draped to our saddles, we're here to compete in the
hosting space. We have always been known for our stellar service, and we are
ready to be known for a stellar product.

------
thebiglebrewski
I totally agree with @recusancy, this is the worst news I've heard all day...I
absolutely despise GoDaddy and everything they represent.

Who should I switch to? Just have some WordPress site hosted on MediaTemple
mostly...

~~~
anu_gupta
Depends on how much you want to pay, and exactly how much control you want,
but one of these should sort you out.

* WPEngine

* Linode

* Bytemark (Big V)

* Rackspace Cloud

* DigitalOcean

~~~
mitchwainer
We just issued a $10 promo code today on Twitter for anyone that is interested
in trying out DigitalOcean. Promo Code: DIVEIN10

~~~
slig
I created an account and entered the promo code. Will the credit in my account
expire? I'm asking because I'll only have time to play with DO in a couple of
months.

Thanks!

------
jjoe
_What about your CEO /co-founder Demian Sellfors?_

Demian’s succession plan has been a long time in the making. In fact, Demian
engineered the company’s strategy resulting in this acquisition. About a year
and a half ago. Demian handpicked Russell P. Reeder to run the company. Both
have been intimately involved with this acquisition. Demian will be shifting
his focus to other projects, but his dream for (mt) to be the most trusted
company in the world is still very much alive.

 _What about the other co-founder, John Carey?_

John Carey, (mt)’s co-founder and CFO, is transitioning out of (mt) as part of
the acquisition. He has also been intimately involved with the strategy as
well. This is something he’s been planning for and thinking about for some
time.

~~~
izolate
This is the most revealing part of the press release. The founders wanted to
cash out. Let's not pretend this acquisition has everyone's best interests at
heart. It only benefits GoDaddy and MT's founders, everyone else gets to
witness the end of MT.

~~~
Tassels
They're sticking with virb. Check out
[http://blog.virb.com/post/64122176288/big-news-from-
virb](http://blog.virb.com/post/64122176288/big-news-from-virb)

~~~
mikeleeorg
This right here is the real story, I'm guessing. Can't say I blame them
either. They probably wanted to move on and needed a soft landing spot for
(mt). So after months of shopping around, GoDaddy perhaps made the sweetest
deal.

Congrats to Virb and the founders next chapter there! This is the first I've
heard of it and it sounds like a pretty neat service.

And good luck the team left at (mt) for managing what is going to be quite a
storm of negative sentiment and customer departures.

------
jmduke
Makes sense. GoDaddy's been trying to rebrand pretty heavily, what with the
redesign, new marketing push, etc., and the article frames MT as a company
that isn't exactly doing great financially.

Pretty boggling statistic: GoDaddy has four thousand employees. Twitter has
around half that.

~~~
MartinCron
I didn't even know that GoDaddy was doing a redesign and new marketing push. I
went to their site and was happy to see fewer bikini girls. However, in the
about us, they still sound like they're trying to be brogrammer central:

 _Like a Stanford dorm room on steroids, our Sunnyvale office is 40,000
square-feet of Bay Area badassery, brimming with some of the biggest brains on
the planet, dreaming up digital masterpieces and keeping time in agile
sprints._

~~~
Yhippa
These guys sound like the Hooters of the technology world.

------
justindocanto
As somebody who's been chatting with people over at GoDaddy about their
upcoming plans to improve their services/ui/support/etc, I've been giving them
a chance because it sounds pretty great.

However, that fruit has yet to bare so I am 100% not happy with this at all.
I'm actually really disappointed/frustrated/mad right now. This was my safe
haven away from everything that budget hosts like GoDaddy did, stood for,
provided, etc.

These kind of acquisitions always starts with "We won't be making any major
changes" and then the company pulls a Yahoo and begins to slowly deteriorate.

This is the worst news, in regards to my every day business, that I've heard
all year. I have 20 clients with DV servers, as well as my own servers and I
am now feeling uneasy about this.

Also, have we not forgotten the anti-sopa / anti-godaddy coupon codes
MediaTemple was giving out when people were bailing from GoDaddy during the
SOPA/PIPA uproar? What happened to that? Nooooooo.

------
josefresco
For all those here suggestion small alternate hosts, accompanied by their
anecdotal positive experience remember that your favorite host is probably one
fat check away from selling out just like MT. In fact, most web hosting models
are built from the ground up to eventually get swallowed (acquired) but a
larger hosting fish.

I've been through several hosting buyouts with my clients over the last 13
years and none have ended well. Even after the dust settles, the "New Company"
almost always loses it's original formula for success and with it, it's
original customers.

Lessons learned: Host with bigger hosts less likely to be snapped up.
Diversify your client hosting providers so one botched buyout will not sink
you.

~~~
rwhitman
Yea exactly. You just can't win with a small host provider. They will always
get acquired. Always. Though I did get the sense that MT was large enough to
stay independent. Really uncomfortable feeling knowing its GoDaddy now

------
ChrisNorstrom
"They'll keep things the same and let us run as an independent company" \-
This is the most told lie during a company acquisition.

1) Media Temple (mt) revealed that they have very slow growth.

2) GoDaddy buys (mt).

Do you think GoDaddy bought (mt) out of the goodness of their hearts? To
GoDaddy this is an investment. If they spend $100 million buying your company,
they want your company to produce $200+ million back and they'll tinker with
whatever they need to to make that happen.

3) GoDaddy sees that (mt) with it's slow growth isn't paying itself off. (and
after today's news even slower growth)

4) GoDaddy starts making changes (merging teams, merging products, changing
terms, playing with prices and plans) to see an increase in revenue.

------
systems
I have one recommendation, hosting knowledge on hn is really not that great,
you should visit webhostingtalk forum for better and more honest discussions
on hosting companies and their quality

MT is not perceived as a good host on wht ... it usually gets average or below
average review ... so I dont know why everyone is talking as if godaddy will
bring them down, MT was never a great company

And i do believe the MT fellow who is saying this will improve MT, sure it
will ... godaddy is by far a bigger and more successful company than MT

------
nhangen
I am so, so disappointed about this. Really love Media Temple and had been
considering moving more of our resources to them.

On the other hand, I hate GoDaddy and will absolutely not remain a MT
customer.

Anyone have a list of good alternatives for reliable semi-managed VPS hosting
in the US?

~~~
nwh
Depends how managed you need it, but Digital Ocean have been getting nothing
but praise of late. They're incredibly cost effective too.

------
zOrg-2013
Since being in business since 1997, this is my 5th notice of: "...we've be
bought & nothing will change...It will be great!..."

It's a crap statement from MT. Nearly a lie. However, it will take several
months until MT starts to show real singes of GoDaddy infiltration - in my
opinion.

My experience at MT has been excellent over the last 4 years, & conversely my
experience with GoDaddy VPS & Private servers have been horrible, a joke, &
expensive - resulting in the loss of several $five $figure accounts for my
little company.

I've actually MADE great new clients & good money MOVING them off of GoDaddy
platforms into my other hosts - MT being the front runner.

Is it time to move services? Yes and no. In the short run (like 6 months) it's
a 'wait and see' deal. I am going to move most of my 436 websites/clients away
from MT over the next year, and keep and hand-full of sites at MT on my DV
(vps) just in case the GoDaddy buyout actually works out.

I've NEVER experienced a successful buyout as an existing account holder.

Message to MT: YOU HAVE BETTER GET THIS GODADDY CRAP RIGHT! You've already
lost 50% of the good faith that we as MT clients have.

Suggestions for new host to follow on next post.

zOrg.

------
vhost-
GoDaddy has repeatedly blocked my domain transfers, had customer service call
and harass me about moving domains out of their control, and didn't listen to
a word I said about the elephant scandal when they called me.

I still, to this day, get calls from GoDaddy even though my last domain (which
was blocked from being transferred for many months) left their hands last
year.

No way am I ever going to trust them, or any company they own again.

------
jcomis
ugh. I don't like this. I liked MT. I just don't like GoDaddy and the way they
do business (example: their ceo shooting elephants, their ads, the way they
squat domains, they supported SOPA, etc) and do not wish to be their customer,
ever. Wonder how many people feel the same as I do?

~~~
justindocanto
They have a new CEO who seems to have a much better moral compass, but
everything else... in absolute agreement.

------
thejosh
Wonder how much for?

And that 88% of their "technical audience" will like the GoDaddy purchase?

------
jqueryin
The other cool part to this is that Virb was resold back to it's original
founder and did not get included in the acquisition. In addition to that, they
received a TC article to boot. Well played, sir!

[http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/virb-spins-out-of-media-
tem...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/virb-spins-out-of-media-temple/)

------
acallaghan
This'll be a good thing if MT's customer service and server tech line up
replaces over GoDaddy's, but it won't. I'm afraid GD will just take the
customers, move them over to their server and strip MT for assets

------
jpea
Considering that developers are usually the ones that recommend hosting
decisions to their clients (since the clients generally have no clue about who
to go with), they just chopped off the main artery of their business with this
sale. Kudos to the MT founders, but GoDaddy just overpaid for something that
might be a skeleton company within a few months.

------
tstoliker
Might want to checkout @LiquidWeb. We are offereing $100 free to MT Refugees
that are worried bit.ly/1684rii

------
Poundhost
We’ll give any MT Customer who is looking for a new hosting provider 25% off
any dedicated or cloud server.

Visit [http://www.poundhost.com](http://www.poundhost.com) and use voucher
code MTREFUGEE at the checkout to get your discount.

Contact us: sales@poundhost.com ^RM

------
uptown
Anyone have a suggestion for a managed hosting alternative with pricing
competitive to MediaTemple?

~~~
rwhitman
The problem is that MT has the best shared host dashboard control panel out
there. The grid shared hosting option historically sucked (can't tell you how
many fires I've had to fight because of prolonged grid outages) but damn, that
slick control panel makes it so easy to spool up a site for a client in a
hurry, or set up a new subdomain that it was worth the pain of periodic
unannounced downtime. I loved being able to get a site up on MT Grid in 5 mins
flat

If there is anything thats as easy to cruise through and still reliable, I'd
love to hear about it.

~~~
thebiglebrewski
Right?!

~~~
justindocanto
I would also love to hear other recommendations as well. Through the years,
I've never found a better user experience then MT.

------
ics
I predict Media Temple TV ads in 10...9...8...

As a long time MT customer (and beta tester), good luck guys! Despite the
general sentiments regarding GoDaddy I hope it works out and provides the
extra juice for whatever is on the horizon.

------
culinandy
If you're looking to get out of MT, Check out A2Hosting.com - they've been
operating independently since 2003 - great uptime, I have no complaints!

------
antr
If I were any of MT/GoDaddy competitors I would launch a campaign/discount to
start attracting MT customers not happy with this acquisition.

~~~
vtbose
Surprised that this is not happening quick enough. I know namecheap.com did
this very well, with GoDaddy negative press a few years ago.

------
fowkswe
There's an elephant joke to be made here...

------
mmuro
A bit surprising, but I have no plans to move away from Media Temple, even
though I'm not crazy about GoDaddy.

------
hieudang9
The Lord has a good warrior :( Goodbye MT

------
SmileyKeith
I've been using Linode and DigitalOcean with great success if anyone is
looking for a recommendation.

~~~
petercooper
This will sound a bit silly but as a customer of both, I gotta confess I'd
feel a lot happier if they pledged not to sell out to a company like GoDaddy..
;-)

------
slig
I was a client in 2007/2008\. The server was laggy and I'm pretty sure they
overselled their VPSs.

Good riddance.

------
harishchouhan
Funny thing is that I just moved my sites to Media Temple yesterday.

------
elwell
From what I remember, Media Temple went downhill a long time ago.

------
EA
(mt) sent this to their customers:

Greetings,

I am proud to share some momentous news with you today. GoDaddy, the
Internet's largest platform for small businesses, has acquired (mt) Media
Temple. We will continue operating as an independent and autonomous company
and our mission will remain unchanged. However, new investments from GoDaddy
will provide us the necessary resources to strengthen our focus on web
professionals and will help accelerate our plans to expand internationally.

At Media Temple, we've always been on a mission to provide the highest quality
service at the lowest possible price. When I co-founded the company in 1998, I
saw an industry that wasn't meeting the needs of web designers all that well.
At one extreme, there was expensive and overly-complex dedicated hosting that
required customers to over-build their solutions. At the other extreme, there
was incredibly cheap "unlimited" hosting that was untrustworthy and lacked
class and transparency. At neither end was there a company truly qualified to
understand and partner with the creative community.

Thanks to incredible customers like you, our model worked out. We've doubled-
down on designers and have created a new platform to help people push the
outer limits of the web. Now with 225 employees, Media Temple serves 125,000
customers making up more than 1.5 million websites in over 100 countries. We
are proud to be one of Los Angeles' original startups, repeatedly recognized
as one of the best places to work in the city — and one of the fastest-growing
companies in the world.

Personally, working with GoDaddy on the acquisition this year has been
unexpected, yet incredibly rewarding. Led by new CEO Blake Irving, the GoDaddy
leadership team, which now includes Media Temple's President, Russell P.
Reeder, is transforming the company with fresh thinking, new advertising, and
an inspiring new strategy. It really is impressive, and so is their new
mission: "Help small businesses easily start, confidently grow, and
successfully run their online ventures."

Though our customers have traditionally been very different, both companies
have similar priorities of providing excellent service experiences. However,
we also understand and respect the vast differences and needs of our
respective customer bases. Hence, Media Temple will continue to run as an
independent business and is not being integrated into GoDaddy. Our customers
should not experience any changes to their service levels, pricing, or the
expert support we are known for. We're not moving our servers, and the phone
number is not changing. We will remain in Los Angeles and will stay committed
to being the most amazing hosting provider possible. In all seriousness, our
mission to host great ideas feels like it's just getting started!

I am confident that Media Temple has made the right decision and I know the
company is only going to get better from here. Please see our website FAQ to
understand this news even further. If you have any questions or comments,
please let us know at questions@mediatemple.net.

Thank you so very much for your passion, your feedback, and your support over
the years.

Best regards,

Demian Sellfors (mt) Media Temple Co-founder @demian_sellfors

------
rootedbox
my godaddy up times are better than my media temple up times..

------
chasing
April Fools! Wait...

~~~
thebiglebrewski
Seriously, I checked the date...

------
jwenzel
Well this blows...

------
ck2
What on earth for?

