EIG's business model is to buy up smaller hosting companies pretty much just for the customer base and then migrate them all onto the same shared infrastructure. They keep the front end sites operating the same but it's all the same on the back end. They've done it so many times that they've gotten quite good at the migrations, and then whatever random hardware the original company was using is discarded. Usually noone from the company being taken over ends up working for them, support is sent to their offshore call centres (who actually do a decent job). Most web hosting companies are fairly small operations and usually have a single owner or maybe a few partners who are just bought out and the employees are all let go.
They're able to maintain the appearance of having a bunch of competing companies and you can shop around for the best deal, which they will change around periodically, but it's always the same thing underneath.
They're able to maintain the appearance of having a bunch of competing companies and you can shop around for the best deal, which they will change around periodically, but it's always the same thing underneath.
Source: Worked for two webhosts acquired by EIG.