Mergers and Acquisitions, MSP

Managed Hosting: Liquid Web Acquires WiredTree

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Jim Geiger

Liquid Web (Lansing, Mich.) has acquired WiredTree (Chicago), essentially uniting two managed hosting providers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Liquid Web focuses its managed hosting products and high-touch support on tech-savvy, web-reliant professionals -- rather than commodity hosting services. The company claims to be a $100 million business.

WiredTree, which has about 5,000 customers, focuses on managed hosting for VPS (virtual private servers), hybrid servers and dedicated servers.

The WiredTree deal follows Liquid Web's buyout of Rackspace’s Cloud Sites business unit in late 2016. That Cloud Sites deal allows Liquid Web to support a range of popular hosting platforms — including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, .NET and PHP.

“With the addition of both WiredTree and Cloud Sites, we further our mission to empower web professionals worldwide to create content and commerce without worry,” said Liquid Web CEO Jim Geiger, in a prepared statement. 

Liquid Web Managed Hosting Strategy

Liquid Web will maintain WiredTree's pricing plan while boosting customer support, the company says. For instance, WiredTree’s customers will gain access to Liquid Web’s 250 Red Hat, Linux and Windows-certified technicians. Also, Liquid Web has created a specialized migration team to work directly with customers as their scheduled upgrades occur, the company says.

Among the key names to know: Chris Lema, VP of products and innovations. Lema, who joined Liquid Web last year, previously was an independent industry consultant focused on the WordPress community.

Complete M&A Coverage: Track all VAR, MSP and CSP mergers and acquisitions by visiting the ChannelE2E Milestones section daily.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.