After EIC, Web.com and Miss Group continue round of consolidations in web hosting market

web hosting
(Image credit: Shutterstock / imaginajib)

After the multi-billion acquisition of EIG earlier this month, two further transactions lead us to believe there might be further consolidation in the web hosting market to come, amid margin contraction and a shift towards website builders.

In Europe, Miss Group - owner of 4 UK host and Stablehost among others - has acquired the Lithuanian web hosting company UAB “Interneto vizija”. The latter has a portfolio of around 68,000 customers with 170,000 domain names and a Tier III datacenter based in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

According to PEwire, the revenue forecast for FY2020 stands at €11.5 million with EBITDA margins in excess of 50 percent, which is surprisingly good in the context of the pandemic. This is the 11th acquisition made by Miss Group in two years; the company now has 20 brands under its umbrella.

Elsewhere, Web.com acquired domain and web hosting provider Freeparking, which is based in New Zealand. The acquisition brings with it more than 90,000 customers and comes after the $76 million purchase of Dreamscape Networks in 2019 by Web.com.

Other than owning one of the most iconic (and well-recognized) names around, Web.com also operates Network Solutions (and the Network Solutions website builder), SolidCactus and domain registrar Register.com.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.