M&A

Hivelocity acquires Heficed

Congratulations to our friends at Hivelocity and Heficed on their recent transaction.

“Heficed, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider headquartered in London, UK, with offices and data centers at multiple locations around the world, has been acquired by U.S. IaaS hosting and bare metal cloud provider, Hivelocity. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.”

Cheval M&A has worked with both companies for some time and enjoyed assisting with the transaction.

Cheval M&A

Author: Hillary Stiff is President of Cheval M&A. She has been an investment banker and CFO, completing M&A transactions and arranging financing for a number of companies including NTT/Verio, The Endurance International Group and Web.Com among many others. She has helped complete over 600 successful web hosting, ISP and related transactions and distributes a list of hosting and related companies that are for sale.

Miss Group Double Acquisition

Congratulations to our friends at Miss Group on their double acquisition this past week of hosters in the US and Canada.

“Fast-growing web hosting company - Miss Group - has acquired Hostek, a US based web hosting company with revenues of US $7.5m. Founded in 1998, Hostek is a leading provider of managed server solutions for businesses in the US with a customer base of 15,000 accounts in both shared and VPS hosting.

“Alongside the acquisition of Hostek, Miss Group has also acquired a Canadian shared web hosting company with revenues of US$2.5m and an established French language customer base. This acquisition adds 16,000 customers and 28,000 new accounts to the Group

Cheval M&A advised Miss Group on the purchases.

Cheval M&A

Author: Hillary Stiff is President of Cheval M&A. She has been an investment banker and CFO, completing M&A transactions and arranging financing for a number of companies including NTT/Verio, The Endurance International Group and Web.Com among many others. She has helped complete over 500 successful web hosting, ISP and related transactions and distributes a list of hosting and related companies that are for sale.

Damages in Data Breach Litigation

Interesting post on the Cooley LLP’s cyber/data/privacy insights blog about recent litigation surrounding the huge Carefirst data breach (Attias.) The post talks about the court’s rejection of the argument that the plantiff’s suffered an “Injury-in-fact” and thus had standing to sue. They note;

“… there is a split between the courts on this issue. The courts disagree about whether the theft of personal information that exposes an individual to a heightened risk of identity theft is an “injury-in-fact” sufficient to confer standing under Article III. Some courts – the D.C., Third, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits – believe (at a high level) that alleging only a heightened risk of future injury is enough to show an “injury-in-fact.” By contrast, other courts – the Second, Fourth, and Eighth Circuits – believe that plaintiffs must allege that the stolen personal data has been actually misused.”

Liability for data breaches is a hot topic these days (highlighted by the recent $230 million GDPR/data breach related fine of British Airways) and one that could have a large effect on Company valuations and transaction risks going forward.

Cheval M&A, Inc.

Author: Hillary Stiff is President of Cheval M&A. She has been an investment banker and CFO, completing M&A transactions and arranging financing for a number of companies including NTT/Verio, The Endurance International Group and Web.Com among many others. She has helped complete over 480 successful web hosting, ISP and related transactions and distributes a list of hosting and related companies that are for sale.

"... Allure of the 'C' Corp"

Nice article in the Wall Street Journal on how changes in personal capital gains and income tax rates, along with a generous gains exemption in section 1202, have made ‘C’ corporations more attractive for some startups. (WSJ is subscription only but there are other articles on this topic out there.)

“For John Bisges it was a pretty easy decision. The Georgia businessman is launching a new brewery this year with a corporate structure known as a “C corporation.” It could allow him the best of two worlds: A low 21% corporate tax rate created in President Trump’s 2017 tax law, and a generous capital-gains tax exemption championed by President Obama.”

For the first time in a long time it is no longer an automatic decision for a startup to use a pass-through entity.

Please be sure to consult your tax adviser before making this kind of decision …

Cheval M&A

Author: Hillary Stiff is President of Cheval M&A. She has been an investment banker and CFO, completing M&A transactions and arranging financing for a number of companies including NTT/Verio, The Endurance International Group and Web.Com among many others. She has helped complete over 480 successful web hosting, ISP and related transactions and distributes a list of hosting and related companies that are for sale.

Appriver acquired by Zix

Congratulations to the folks at Appriver on their sale to Zix for $275 million. Not a lot of detail was provided other than the combined company will have revenue at closing of approximately $180 million. Appriver has long been a leading provider of email and related services and is a terrific asset for any company. Zix provides email security for compliance.

Cheval M&A

Author: Hillary Stiff is President of Cheval M&A. She has been an investment banker and CFO, completing M&A transactions and arranging financing for a number of companies including NTT/Verio, The Endurance International Group and Web.Com among many others. She has helped complete over 470 successful web hosting, ISP and related transactions and distributes a list of hosting and related companies that are for sale.