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Big Fish Grow Fat From Eating Smaller Fish…

…but what happens when the small fish are all gone?

ANSWER: the big fish begin eating each other, until only one huge monster is left. They call it “MONOPOLY”.

The name is aptly derived from two Ancient Greek words: mónos, meaning “alone, only, sole, or single”, and POLY, from ‘polus’, meaning “many, or much.” The ‘single’ engulfs the ‘many’.

It’s obviously a very bad idea for fish, so why does society not do more to prevent it happening in business? “Ah,” I hear you cry, “but we have the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.”

“And when,” is my response, “did you last hear from them?”

Sparrow Chat has been web-hosted for many years by a company called, ‘IX Web Hosting’, but they’ve recently been taken over by ‘Site5’, who, in turn, are owned by an international conglomerate called EIG (Endurance International Group). EIG has been called ‘the world’s largest web-hosting company you’ve probably never heard of.’ It’s one of those vile monsters that has grown huge by engulfing smaller companies, often at the expense of employees who end up unemployed, and customers who face ever-rising fees.

To date EIG has hoovered up over eighty web-hosting and tech companies.

The concept was to roll up small ISPs into one large national ISP and achieve economies of scale. Endurance is acquiring hosting companies domestically and internationally…the company made four buys in 2014. The largest was a $109.8 million cash and stock deal for the web presence business of Directi from Indian-based Directi Web Technologies. Directi provides services in various countries, including India, the U.S., Turkey, China, Russia and Indonesia.

In March 2015, the company announced an investment in Netherlands-based technology startup AppMachine, acquiring 40% of the company.

In August 2015, EIG announced the acquisition of Site5 and Verio Web Hosting from NTT. It is estimated that EIG gained 86,000+ new subscribers through these acquisitions.

In November 2015, the company acquired Constant Contact, and days later laid off 15% of their workforce.
Also in November 2015, EIG acquired the assets of Ecommerce, LLC for $28 million. This acquisition included a total of 72,000 subscribers from three different hosting brands: IX Web Hosting, Cloud by IX, and Host Excellence.[1]

It’s yet another tale of hedge funds and investment bankers sweeping up small companies to make themselves even richer. It stinks and Sparrow Chat will not be a part of any money-making game where the majority are impoverished so a few can grow obscenely wealthy. It’s a common practice these days and one accepted by a society rapidly losing all moral fibre in the rush for greed-fuelled riches.

I’m happy to report that EIG is about to lose one customer. Over the the next few days/weeks Sparrow Chat will be moving to a new webhost – ‘A2 Hosting’.[2]

A2 is an independent and founder-owned company, which categorically states it is not part of EIG, or any other of the monsters out there lurking in the deep, murky, waters of corporate takeover.

Hopefully, ‘A2 Hostings’ will survive that way for a long time. If not, Sparrow Chat may have to move on again.

[1] “Wikipedia, Endurance International Group

[2] “A2 Hosting”

3 Replies to “Big Fish Grow Fat From Eating Smaller Fish…”

  1. Oh! That’ll be a hassle, RJ, but a worthwhile one, and a strike against monopolies in general. I’ve often remarked to Anyjazz of late, “What the heck has happened to monopolies legislation?” It’s out there somewhere, even in the USA, but seems to be impotent in most cases. “1984” scenarios could be just around the next bend.

  2. I, too, had a lovely website and email and that company, a tiny little enterprise call Tucows, was swallowed up repeatedly until I finally gave it all up as the fees kept increasing and the service decreasing. Shame really.

    I do hope your transition goes smoothly and your posts are archived properly.

    XO
    WWW

  3. Twilight ~ happily, it went very smoothly and I doubt anyone noticed a problem. I have to admit to breathing a large sigh of relief! I’d painstakingly copied all my files and databases to a hard-drive just in case something went wrong, but A2 Hosting were very professional and moved everything across from the previous sharks in less than an hour.
    Site5 had invoiced 329 euros to host for the next two years. A2 have offered a similar service for 207 euros and given me 51% off that for the first two years – a saving of over 200 euros against Site5’s charges.
    I’m just hoping they don’t sell out to EIG!

    WWW ~ I know Tucows, I have my domains registered with them. Bought out by Infonautics, who then changed their name to Tucows and started the ‘big fish eats little fish’ takeover game. They’re now the second biggest domain registrar in the world, according to Wikipedia.
    Many thanks for your good wishes. I’m happy to report all has gone well and we’re up and running again.

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