Dicussion of EV1 and The Planet Announce Merger

[ChrisTech]

Discuss - EV1 and The Planet Announce Merger

http://www.theplanet.com/newsroom/pr/20060508.html

Well, I think this is going to be big, hopefully everyone "profits" from this.

[Grunfeld]

I suspect it will be a wait and see thing, hopefully I will all be good, however sometimes the bigger they are the harder they fall.....
Hence why I have always tried to support the small guys far better off in my opinion..... then again my opinion and a $1.50 will get you a medium coffee nowadays....

[-Oz-]

This is interesting news. It'll be interesting to see if anyone can stand to challenge them.

[KyleC]

I have had multiple private servers from The Planet, and received great service all around. I don't know about EV1, my friend had experience there, and found their service levels to be lower.

I hope this turns out well.

[josephus]

Name Always Bothered Me

Ev1servers looks like Evilservers. To me anyway.
Anyone else?

[rsowen]

I'm not so positively convinced that anyone but the investor will profit. From the articles at the links that Andrew posted, it looks like this wasn't a buddy-buddy merger between The Planet and EV1. Instead, an **investment firm** bought a controlling interest in each individual company -- that's a takeover, not a partnership. They started with $500 mm in capital a few years ago and have now grown it to $2 BILLION. The investment group most likely has an interest in maximizing the short-run return on its investment, not in running a chain of data centers. Think about the movie, "Pretty Woman" as an extreme example of how that business works.

One strategic reason for gaining control of two of the more successful players in this business is to consolidate market share. When you control market share you no longer have to worry about being competitive. Don't be surprised to hear in the next few months that costs have been cut -- half of the management and half of the techie support people between the companies is now at risk. Potential changes could result in decreases in uptime, decreases in the customer service that Andrew receives, and increases in the prices that Andrew pays. Any such changes will be passed down to us.

Hopefully, Andrew has a new interest in diversifying the location of his servers -- keeping all eggs in one basket might now be risky.

- Bob O.

[Elite]

I'm not so positively convinced that anyone but the investor will profit. From the articles at the links that Andrew posted, it looks like this wasn't a buddy-buddy merger between The Planet and EV1. Instead, an **investment firm** bought a controlling interest in each individual company -- that's a takeover, not a partnership. They started with $500 mm in capital a few years ago and have now grown it to $2 BILLION. The investment group most likely has an interest in maximizing the short-run return on its investment, not in running a chain of data centers. Think about the movie, "Pretty Woman" as an extreme example of how that business works.

One strategic reason for gaining control of two of the more successful players in this business is to consolidate market share. When you control market share you no longer have to worry about being competitive. Don't be surprised to hear in the next few months that costs have been cut -- half of the management and half of the techie support people between the companies is now at risk. Potential changes could result in decreases in uptime, decreases in the customer service that Andrew receives, and increases in the prices that Andrew pays. Any such changes will be passed down to us.

Hopefully, Andrew has a new interest in diversifying the location of his servers -- keeping all eggs in one basket might now be risky.

- Bob O.

Indeed - surely a reduction in competition means they won't have to competitive on price and service?