Ramnode apparently sold to Inmotionhosting

Just came across something that said Ramnode was sold to Inmotion hosting. Apparently there are no plans to change how that operates and the staff will remain, but Nick will be eventually stepping down. Interesting times, isn't it?

Hopefully you're wrong...but after this news, people will leave...and if anything should go wrong a year from now...people will leave. Either way, you may end up being right. Who will stay to prove everyone wrong?

Of course they are required to advise their governments, if it goes to legal issues then your lawyer will search who own the website/business. But there is plenty of hosts around who are not even telling their customers who they are and in which countries they are registered. The business did'nt lied to anyone, they just did'nt release the information yet, it's a different thing. It is not like if they have denied that they have been sold.

But, see, service isn't "unchanged". The company you've been dealing with for years (in some cases) has, effectively changed hands, and policies. This isn't a good change, at all. MOST people login to a client area for a hosting company for one of two reasons 1: to pay their bill 2: to obtain support . If support isn't offered via client area, but through a third website (say kayako, zendesk, etc), then they would login less frequently If they pay, say annually, then they'd REALLY login less frequently If they pay, say by card, or subscription (many do), again, even less frequently THIS is why it is important to let people know that the company you're doing business with has changed hands through the one thing we all check hourly, or daily (sometimes way more than just once a day ), email. This isn't spam, it's a business communication with someone you're actively doing business with, and a notice that said business is changing (and it is). I don't disagree that we're not doing business with Nick. Never were. That's a non issue, really. The issue is the lack of proper notification to clients. Again, the client area was a good step, but, really, like others have said, that's not logged into that frequently Honestly? I would say yes. As someone who hates spam, and has actually called out certain providers for mailing me with things they think are cool and I want, this is one of those times where open and honest communication is important, and yes, this would qualify as an exception. As long as it wasn't clearly an attempt to sell me another product, of course

In their defense, that's one of the things brought up in the client area announcement. They'll be reworking the website (keeping the orange)

Also a strange acquisition. I've not seen that news yet.

We were too. There was nothing good that came from that acquisition. We ended up cancelling all of our services with them shortly after that fiasco.

Attempting to cover up a sale like this, for months, withholding information like this from paying customers. Yes, that is lying

I'll chime in that from what I can see the only official announcement made via an official channel is in the 'News' section of the RamNode website which lets be honest, the vast majority of people won't visit very often. To my knowledge clients haven't had email sent out, social media channels haven't been updated with even the link to the news article, discord channel news hasn't been updated etc and so on. There's massive alarm bells ringing when an announcement like this seems to be being pushed under the carpet and trying to be hidden from plain sight, and I question whether an announcement would've actually been made if this information didn't leak on several forums. I hope this works out well and no major changes are made - But at this point I can't see that at all. If I still had services with RamNode, i'd be getting out as soon as I could because quite frankly if I can't trust the new "ownership" to be reasonable with basic announcements, information and communications I would be uneasy as to whether or not I could rely on them long term.

No changes have been made to any RamNode networks, Tom. I understand that may have been frustrating, but there could have been several reasons for this, not limited to us. I don't see that any support ticket was raised to us to investigate the issue. Our refund policy has not changed since we started offering Cloud services, when a credit system was established. Any refunds made outside of policy, including the ones you were previously and most recently issued (as you have disclosed here), are made on a discretionary basis. It also does not appear, from the communication I reviewed, that any "pushing" was necessary on your part in any of these cases. Anyway, wish you the best of luck with your new provider, and we appreciate your business over the last several years. @ martin_r : Changes to the main website are planned, but we have been more focused on transitional items. And yes, the signature orange color is staying!

Yeah, saw it on LET. Strange indeed.

First Congrats to both companies I don't think we jumping to conclusions right away, should wait and next 4,6 month will tell how it goes

Well it's very unlikely that a business will tell their customers that they are in negotiation to sell their business. You are saying they did cover it up for months, I say you would have probably did the same.

Based on what? If a company buys another one, they get full access, database and all. Suggesting they don't have access would mean they bought just based on reputation or services provided, and fully trust that purchase to the point they have no need to check anything or manage it in any way. Very unlikely. Very much agree there. One company I deal with, I'd asked more than once to be off any solicitation type emails. Took several tries and eventually anger. Then I get a one line Christmas best wishes email, and oh and by the way, here's a number of deals we're offering. Nothing worse than that, and would be very unwelcome and surprising from Ramnode. This^^. I don't visit the client area much at all. It's been basically set it and forget it (very solid service to now), with Ramnode emailing me when something's going to happen (maintenance windows, explaining downtime), so it's normal to hear about non-advertising "happenings" from them. No email notice at all about the sale of the company feels like IMH's doing and not Ramnode.

Just thought I would pop in to see if there were any updates here To combine/quote my previous posts; March 4th LET knew about it March 6th An article was written about it March 7th PR News release March 7th WHT Newsletter March 8th ....................... March 9th ....................... March 11th ....................... March 17th ....................... As Spock would say, fascinating!!

For those looking for verification https://hostingjournalist.com/web-ho...uires-ramnode/ The statement by InMotion founder: https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussio...motion-hosting Looks like Nick just decided it was time to step away from the hosting industry . He’s built a great brand and I can’t fault him for that. I hope InMotion was the right choice , we shall see

I'll stick around.... For a while. Will definitely be keeping my eye open for a Ramnode like alternative though. Will the last person out the door make sure to turn the lights off? or are we going to keep 'em on forever? Wait... we have a but "lightbulb"??? hmmmmm

Wow, just dropped in on WHT to see if anything was happening I should know about ... and this. Just to repeat what others have said, but from my own perspective. 1. I've been a RamNode customer since February 2013, and have had active services with them continuously since then. There has been cause to open tickets to fix minor issues, or to get help with something that can only be fixed node-side, but I've had zero problems. Not one. Every single thing has been flawless. For a low-budget self-managed VPS provider to achieve that is saying something. I've used some absolute shockers over those years. Just 3 companies have been consistently solid, and RamNode is one of them. I'll miss them. 2. ... I'll miss them, if things go away. I'm always one to give a buyout time to see how things play. I don't judge too quickly. If they'd been bought by a company that had bought dozens of other hosts over the years and every single one had fallen apart, I'd leave today. But this is not that story. I don't wish to be cynical. They say they want to make it work. Everyone says that when they have a buy out, of course they do, but sometimes it does work out, so let's see what happens. Nick has carefully built up RamNode to be team-driven; he's probably got it to the point where he could step back and things continue to run. 3. Well done Nick. Seriously, well done. You've built something to be proud of. You've presumably been paid an appropriate sum that reflects the value of the business. And you get to reset your life balance back to where you want it. This is every hosting company owner's ultimate goal, surely, and you've done it. 4. The announcement was a fiasco. Like others, I do feel let down that this is the first I've heard of it. Some have said that we the customers have a right to know if our provider has changed. I don't see it that way. This is how incorporation works - your provider was not Nick Adams but RamNode.com, a corporate entity. If anything goes wrong with your hosting, the "person" who makes things good is not the owner of RamNode but your hosting provider - a corporate entity. They are no more legally obliged to tell us that they've changed owner than an EIG client has a legal right to know whenever a pension fund buys EIGI shares on Nasdaq. ... But, we do have a relational right to know. As has been said, part of the appeal of RamNode is that it "feels" more personable and less corporate, so ongoing trust through the transition all hinges on recognising that the brand strength is that sense of responsibility and communication. Onwards, and hopefully upwards.

This is how EIG gets you. It's how a number of shady silent acquisitions have gone down in the past 2 decades. 1. I almost never login to pay a bill, unless my CC has changed (and I remember to update hosting), or I get an email that my CC was declined. Some new owners, as example, have been known to silently raise prices, and people have sometimes gone YEARS without noticing (although I'd notice with 1-2 months). Using the "you dealt with a company, not the owners" mentality, buried in the existing ToS/AUP was some sneaky verbiage that allowed it. The old company had never done it, but the newer one certainly did. (Odds are, the old company had a boilerplate ToS/AUP, and never knew or intended to by moneygrubbing shysters.) Then a new ToS/AUP is rolled out, after beating you with the old one. 2. I never needed support until the sloppy new operators ransacked the place, often mismanaged it and lost data. Had I known about new ownership, I may have moved, maybe taken more frequent backups, etc. Was it Stablehost? I still get BS, and probably half of them aren't even written in English now. It's ridiculous.

This bit is concerning. Dishonesty + lack of transparency with their customers. As much as possible I'd like to go with the "wait and see, why not give them a chance" approach but it looks like I'm going to have to jump ship soon.

A bit odd that the client base was not informed of the change of ownership and that they had to find out on various forums. However wish all the best to Sunil with his new acquisition.

I think I'll stick around anyway, for a while.

There’s a difference between hiding the fact that you’re looking to sell and actually HAVE sold. They have been in the latter category for a month now and have been lying to their customers since

No, not them. I'd rather not say who, but they seemed genuinely surprised I didn't welcome the emailed offers, despite opting out (repeatedly). The responses I got left me feeling like they were shaking their heads over my being upset. The hosting service is very good, but the customer service is not (in my experience).

More often that means "hold up mirror, watch yourself get into bad situation by not acting earlier". Not that it will here, as InMotion isn't a bad host. But in general. But also remember that a good host (LiquidWeb) massively bungled a similar VPS company buyout (WiredTree). I've been though multiple hosting buyouts in the past 20+ years. Care to guess how many went smoothly, how many were improved after buy-out? Zero. I'm not exaggerating. Not one turned out well. I've read about a few M&A that did go well (LiquidWeb/Nexcess comes to mind), but I was never at those merging/buyout companies at those times.

the news of the purchase was leaked on LET before they finished releasing a statement to everyone. Internet Detectives win again.

I would love to run but in the middle of a few projects, so it will have to wait. I mean "we have" a year...but I'm not waiting that long. WiredTree and RamNode were the only ones I would recommend or use if needed for a specific project...and both are gone. I think this will be a summer project to find a replacement. I will install an auto light switch on the way out in case anyone is scared of the dark or not sure where the switch is

Cant believe I joined this dilapidated forum for this. Ok man we get it. You're unhappy. You've made that painfully and excessively obvious. But which is it? You said earlier they've lied about it for months, now you're saying it's only been a month. They haven't lied about ****. You're angry because they didn't announce it on your preferred timeline because you feel you're entitled to be in the know about everything. From what I've seen they haven't lied about it at all. Every post I've seen about this was accompanied by someone from Inmotion confirming the deal did indeed happen, even before a press release was made. So they haven't be "lying about it ever since" and it barely looks like they were even attempting to cover it up. It looks like they've been pretty responsive to concerns and questions. You don't have a concern or question, you're literally just complaining over and over about something that they have already provided an explanation for because it wasn't good enough for you. What exactly do you want? I also recall a conversation that occurred in a private IRC when Ramnode's AS was transferred to Inmotion around mid-Feb and was promptly noticed by a team member working for an IRR at the time. He outright asked @ nessa about the purchase, and she confirmed it stating that they had to wait on a public announcement until certain terms of the agreement were met. I'm assuming this had to do directly with the IP transfer and possible purchase of certain assets that Ramnode owns, but who knows. You don't, I don't. There were over 300 industry players in this channel and not one of us blabbed it out of respect for process and the people involved. Are we all liars too? Working in the M&A dept for a major firm for 4 years, I've never once seen an acquisition that didn't have an NDA tied to it. Most companies do not announce plans to merge or acquire another and there are a lot of very legitimate reasons for this. Your lack of experience in this area doesn't constitute a misdoing on their part or a blatant attempt at secrecy. They could have personally emailed you about this a week before the deal was signed and you still would have found a way to complain about it. Frankly, I'm excited about this. I was a customer of Inmotion Hosting for a couple of years when I ran a hosting firm for a clients' design base, and only left because their VPS offerings at the time were only managed and came with CentOS/Cpanel. From their website, it looks like they've expanded their reach a bit. I've also personally worked with @ nessa over the years on various projects and am happy to see that she was moved over to the Ramnode team full time (she has confirmed this publicly several times as well) and that Inmotion decided to also take on the existing Ramnode staff. With all that in play, I strongly doubt any of them would stick around if Inmotion had plans to "cannibalize" their customer base or make significant changes to their pricing or offerings. Even the former Ramnode owner confirmed his confidence in the deal and I'm sure he probably talked to plenty of other providers when he was looking to sell. He spent 10 years building his company, doubt he would just hand it off to anyone who he thought would tear it down. So chill with the negativity here. In one post you stated that you're going to stay with them for a while. Why not let time tell? No one is forcing you to stay with Ramnode and continuing to bash both companies on here over your disagreement in their handling of a routine business transaction looks petty at best. Edit: spelling

In the sense that they do not have access to the database as owners, but as the company the own. The distinction is important. Before the takeover, RamNode.com had access to its client database. After the takeover, RamNode.com has access to its client database. I was responding to Daniel's assertion that the new owners "just freshly got access to the customer database" (emphasis added). Different people may be the beneficial owners of RamNode.com, but it's RamNode who has access to the database. So there isn't actually anybody going "oh, good, we now have this database we can mine". Let's say a large beneficial owner of InMotion also runs a business selling website development services. InMotion don't own it - that person does. If they emailed RamNode customers because they have access to the database, that would be spam pure and simple. If InMotion emailed RamNode customers from an InMotion email address, about services under the InMotion brand, that could be legitimate or could be spam. It all depends if RamNode has been merged into InMotion so that they are now one company (in which case they could email), or if InMotion (corporate entity) just became the sole owner of RamNode (corporate entity) (they should not so email)> But for RamNode to email their own customers is not abusing putatively fresh access to the database. That was my point, but labouring it thus risks taking this thread away from its overall points.

Interesting how this thread is getting the same attention as the customers are getting. Times sure have changed. On with today's update. March 4th LET knew about it March 6th An article was written about it March 7th PR News release March 7th WHT Newsletter March 8th ....................... March 9th ....................... March 11th ....................... March 17th ....................... March 18th .......................

I do agree that clients should have been informed . Kind of a bad way for us to find out

I think it is because Ramnode runs OpenStack successfully for about 2 years and even more if we count their training period with platform and got the know how to building it and running it in production ... I think the migrations will be other way around ... Inmotion want more OpenStack infrastructure and will use Ramnode Practical Know How that is why they keep the staff with exception of Nick retiring after a couple of months

Happy to have you also. Are you working for either IMH or Ramnode currently?

KP, just to clarify one thing. I'm making that point fairly strongly. But, if you see my post above when I first entered this discussion, I was making the point that there is a moral duty for RamNode to email their customers about the takeover, and that this is essential to maintain trust and the very culture that has made them a success. So I'm not making that point as a way of saying there's no need for them to do so. I am making that point because quite a few posts in this thread are confused over the distinction, and as a result are not (IMO) seeing the situation quite as clearly as is helpful.

Trying to increase your post count? There's an announcement on their website, there's a press release , there are several posts about it here and in other hosting related forums etc etc. I don't get why you're fixated with receiving an emails, as it's pretty clear that there won't be one.

Why might that be? Eh, people are already overwhelmed enough at the moment. I'm holding off on all acquisition announcements for awhile too

Congratulations to both of them... but I wish we would've heard first via some formal notification... not a forum post!

Overall I agree with most of what you said...but without sounding crazy...this point I took from yours is what we have issues with. I too am currently a client of Ramnode, and as of today, March 9th...still no news about it from them. Sure its great Inmotion backed up any posts...but I am not a customer of InMotion...or at least now I am and had no idea. Us talking about it on here, the people on other forums, and a few places...great that some of us stumbled on to the news...but how many customers do they have, and how many still have no idea any of this happened? Saying they addressed concerns...how do you address a concern that was never mentioned? Hey I accidentally dinged your car. Let's figure out the cost and I will pay for it, as opposed to you walking out and finding a ding on your car and having to guess what happened, to then find out. You're attitude to the issue will be completely different.

It would be astonishing that a purchased company kept their data separate/isolated from the buyer's company. I can guarantee (in an purely logical sort of way) they have full access, even if they aren't actively mining it. You'd need to pore over records, check financials, make sure the accounts were in order and so on. No one would buy it without that access. If? Nick is leaving, and IMH purchased Ramnode, lock, stock and database. Just because they keep the name and staff (allegedly), does not mean Ramnode is not owned by them, and yes, as sole owner. Nick sold, they bought, with no mention of any other entities involved (well, nothing emailed, at any rate). They own it, solely.

wpcycle has over 10,000 posts already, so I doubt that's his concern. I think the concern with emails is the one already expressed: Lots of long-time clients of web hosts log into the Client Area once a year, and some don't even need to do that. When you do log in, the announcements area is on the dashboard but not prominently. So if they considered this important they'd let people know by email, just as they do about important service updates. I'm inclined to agree with you, however. Given there has been no round-robin so far, and given that (even if they wished to get things more advanced before announcing) the cat has been out of the bag for some time, it does seem fair to conclude there will be no email. I agree with others: That's (a) poor, (b) a change from the old-RamNode way of doing things, and (c) not boding well. But other than that, there's not much more to say at this stage is there?

Unmanaged cheap VPS provider (even if good), and Inmotion historically has gone after bottom-feeder cheapskate hosting clients.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inmot...133400824.html

One for 2021. I remember the days when this was every 3 to 4 days.

I have to catch up on some of the reading, but as a few have said about key points...logging into the client area, and marketing. Just an update, March 14th, and still no emails. It's just luck and the marketing of WHT why I'm here. Say WHT didn't send that email, or didn't add this topic...I would only have known if I came here by searching through the topics...and the last few months, I haven't had time to do that. Logging in the client area When you have a solid service, you never log into the client area. That's my experience, and the experience of my clients (was that a shameless plug? Look for my signature below, and get a gift pack on the way out Happy Sunday...and I'm just joking around, please no infractions, haven't had one in a couple years ) 1. I never log into the client area of a good service. Invoice comes in, I pay it, move on, and in RamNodes case and other resources, it's on a subscription. Some monthly, and some annually, so there's never a reason to log in. 2. The same applies to why I dropped cPanel years ago. Clients never used it. If the website was up and their emails were working, they would never log in. It was just a wasted resource that was paid for everyone month that eventually limited what I could do..but on topic, sticking major news in the least visited area for customers, while the world has that information is beyond backyards. Marketing There should not be a debate about whether or not the customers should be notified. This wasn't an upsell email. If a clients need to be moved to a new server every few years while upgrading, they get an email. If the service(s) goes down, they get an email. Communication. It keeps them on board. Clearly no communication here is making people want to leave. One of my provider had a network issue about 2 years ago with a few hours of downtime, and they communicated that they were on top of it. Some comments people were complaining and hating, while others who commented the thoughts I had that say you got 5000+ hours or years of uptime with probably 5 minutes of downtime in all those years, are you really going to throw a couch out the window for a few minutes or even an hour of downtime?!??! I too had to send an email out to my clients to let them know what happened. They stayed on because the fear of did he just close and leave was taken out their minds. They are still here. An email has to go out to customers about what happened, how it was resolved, and future steps to prevent it, no matter if they're opted-in for emails or not. Imagine if we could opted out of invoice emails, and then use the argument of I didn't see the email, therefore I don't have to pay. Many hear marketing, and think of emails like Hey we have new servers, or Hey, a new Holiday deal. Many have no time for those emails and chose not to receive them. Selling the company is not an upsell email, unless of your EIG. They are the knuckleheads that would have the company send out an email saying Hey were upgrading our servers with zero mention of the company being sold. Blatant lie. I wish I kept some of those old emails. There are probably thousands of customers within EIG that have no idea the host they signed up with years ago was ever sold, and in recent months, sold again.

It was a joke of course. Exactly my point.

hopefully it won't be the as a sad story as what happened to stablehost

Hi everyone, I'm a long-time IMH employee that just moved over to the RamNode wing permanently. We're all very excited about this, but I know it's also raised some community concerns. If you have questions, feel free to reach out. We understand that transparency is important, and that maintaining the brand, reputation, and identity that RamNode has created over the last decade is vital to its continued success. This is NOT the end of RamNode! It was decided early on that RamNode would continue to be operated as a separate entity under the InMotion umbrella. As such, we have brought over the entire RamNode team (including the CTO, who is a former employee of IMH), while Nick will eventually be moving on to pursue offline endeavors. It should be noted that we had a full press release (which came out earlier today) and customer notifications planned, but in the course of fulfilling transitional requirements related to the purchase, the news was leaked on LET/LES, which prompted IMH's Vice President to subsequently release an informal announcement to those communities. Trust me, that's not how we wanted everyone to find out. RamNode customers: we hope you'll stick around and give us a chance. While I can't speak too far into the future (we aren't there yet), we have no intention of changing the core of what RamNode has become, or turn our backs on the communities that helped build us as a brand. There's a lot up in the air right now, but our focus is on growing RamNode as a brand and improving on their core product lines.

I do not, nor have I ever, worked for either company. I was a customer of Inmotion and know @ nessa personally, but that's pretty much the extent of the relationship right now.

You quoted half my sentence. In other words, there's a distinction between merger and acquisition. With a merger, two companies merge assets and liabilities to become a single company. With an acquisition, the acquired company remains a legally distinct corporate entity, but the sole owner is the acquiring company. The acquirer gains the benefit of all the assets, and is responsible for all the liabilities, but because they own the company whose assets and liabilities they are. It's a very important difference in the corporate world. In particular, you often get multiple companies owned by a single holding company. I've seen it in the world of property, where perhaps one estate agency firm owns several companies that operate the firm's brand in different geographical markets. I've seen it in multinational companies, where (for example) a US listed mining company operates a mine in African via 100% ownership of a company incorporated in the African state in question. This structure means, among other things, that one subsidiary can go bankrupt without taking the parent down with it. (Not that I'm suggesting that would happen here). But that was my point in the "If" you picked up. I wasn't sufficiently informed on the details to say for sure that this is an acquisition rather than a merger. But, hey, once again we're in danger of derailing the discussion by latching onto minor details of a post rather than the main point of the thread.

I agree with both of you and the post count was far from my mind. I forgot that was even a thing years ago Somehow I just had this little thought that maybe if its mentioned enough on a public forum, especially in the thread with the people who work there, that an email would go out to the customers who are unaware of this. Sadly that has not been the case. We know how it works on here sometimes. Customer complains to host numerous times and nothing happens, but once they post here, the host magically fixes the problem within an hour. Ah well. I will only make a mention if I see an email of the news. Until then, Happy Weekend to Everyone Edit...I didn't know there were other posts on WHT about it, as I was led to this one by the newsletter. I've been a bit busy to search through, but I would assume those threads are saying the same thing and could be combined as other multiple news thread tend to happen.

Typo in my last reply. Inmotion hasn't -- HAS NOT -- historically gone after the cheap VPS bottom-feeders. So it's odd for a business that caters to non-cheapskates to buy a business that does cater to that audience. Stablehost was bought by a company with a lousy-to-unknown reputation already. That's not Inmotion. But a better comparison would be the WiredTree buyout by LiquidWeb. LW was, and still is, an extremely excellent provider. But that acquisition was a complete clusterfvck. But I believe WT was partially to blame, maybe entirely -- it's been too long, forget the details.

At this point in time, what assurances are in place for existing customers with deals will keep their existing deals for the foreseeable future?

Clearly, you don't. I have said months once... That was probably an autocorrect thing, Apple likes doing things like that, and I don't always catch it. The transfer of assets happened in 'early February', meaning this deal was likely signed in January, making 'months' technically correct, but I have in every occasion, but one, stated the correct term. That one, like I said, autocorrect , most likely. A lie of omission, is still a lie Like I said, clearly you don't get it. I'm not 'angry'. Not one bit. Again, incorrect. They haven't announced this. At all. A month after the assets transferred hands, it still has not been announced. Customers STILL have not been properly notified. As of march 9, no notification has gone out to customers that the business they're expecting to do business with has changed hands. That's not professional, and certainly not good, at all Holding companies accountable is not negativity. The deal has transpired (likely well before February) Assets have been transferred for a month now Customers DO have a right to know who they're doing business with The majority of customers do not know about this, because, let's face it, forums are dead. Have been for quite a while And on that note, I'm out (hopefully). I've said my piece, and others have echoed the same concerns. Clearly, Nick, and Inmotion have no plans to address that concern, or try to establish trust lost with their client base.

Yes, the part I was responding to. That *usually* avoids confusion. Well aware of it. Merger is when they get rolled into the survivor, and acquisition is when they purchase the assets and brand, like this one, usually leaving the brand and infrastructure mostly as it was, to run as it's own brand, but still ultimately under their control. Assets include hardware and all it contains; ie: data. To say they don't have the client database is kind of silly. If they use it is another story. That was, and remains, my point. Back to the topic.

I've not seen any other threads on WHT but there's a thread on some of the other main forums. Doesn't mean customers visit them though, i'd bet a good chunk of their customers don't even know about this yet.

Odd that no announcement was made to customers before it came out on LET indeed and just seems to be an odd aqusition in the sort of target markets that they cater for - This could be a could thing (inmotion could well be wanting to branch out into the non managed, lower end of the market and thought RamNode was a good buy), or they could go the opposite way and be trying to get everyone over to their higher end offerings which probably wont end well - Maybe they'll mix the two together, and offer a new managed product through RamNode. Who knows. Could also be part of their expansion plans as Inmotion for example has no EU location and RamNode already has hardware in several other US locations that Inmotion doesn't. Either way it's a weird one and it'll go one way or the other, hopefully they keep things pretty much as is but at the minute, considering it was kept quiet, I'm not convinced.

If this is a question about pricing, this is actually something we haven't been focused on and isn't expected to change in the foreseeable future - key word here being "foreseeable." I of course can't give a definite answer to cover the indefinite future, I'm only confirming that it's not on the roadmap right now.

As a paying customer? You're damned right he's entitled to that information. That just means your PR dept sucks. Nothing more. That doesn't instill confidence. Most people bluster when outed. (That said, InMotion is historically a good company. But such actions are those of amateur gutter-rat "hosting" operations.) The process does not deserve "respect". I don't know. Debatable. This is a problem. NDA is abused and overused, and eventually such BS will come to a tipping point by means of congressional actions. The overwhelming majority of people are NOT for the things, as they've mostly been leveraged to hide truth from people that had a right to know it. People that needed to know it in order to make informed choices. False. So? Is the deal so fragile that some members wanting to leave breaks it? Everybody knows that M&A comes with disgruntled users/buyers. However, it equally comes with enthused users/buyers. This is why covering up is a negative. You shut out those possible enthused users/buyers, and it WILL eventually come out in a negative light. M&A "business experts" need a good dose of PR and consumer psychology courses, to stop being their own worst enemies. In theory, I am too. But the delayed announcement + info leak gives me pause. That's what EIG did. Yeah... uh huh. Let's see how that actually plays out before celebrating. Pffft. If they stick around, it will be because they like/need their job, I assure you, not because of "the customer". Let's be honest and realistic here. That's great and all, but it's now essentially a new company. When the helm goes, the company changes. That's true all the way from Apple to the small fries. (And Cook is a better helm of Apple than Jobs was, and that's pretty universally agreed now.) Sometimes better, some worse. So worse, in fact, that it ends up with dissolution of the entity. How naive. EIG sellers said the same. "bashing" is a juvenile word. What is being presented here is fair criticisms of poor and unethical business practices. Both to this exact M&A, and in general to this industry, some of it historical. Not in the least. Again, fair criticism. You disagreeing doesn't make it petty.

You'd be surprised. Worked as a tech for a few companies who have bought out other companies, the ones where things usually go to ****, from first hand experience usually end up because the company they originally bought wasn't as honest as they originally promised. I.e, oversold hardware to the point of collapse etc. That is on the buying party to do more due diligence but they usually do not.

Agreed. If it wasn't for this thread I wouldn't have noticed. The announcement on the RamNode website was missed by me, and I've logged into my client area a few times recently. Boy who cried wolf scenario - the announcement shares the same widget as "Block storage now available in region you never cared about". I'm happy to hear from kpmedia, at least to keep myself on my toes. I share the same sentiment but haven't actually experience it with webhosting. But plenty of other services, both online and offline - rarely was anything "better" from one company buying another. Often worse. RamNode is my primary VPS and Amazon is my failover. I think I will switch that out of caution.

Absolutely. We were caught up in that, and it went very sideways for us, during and after the migration. We didn't stay long. Really miss Wiredtree. Exceptional service. Back on topic.

Hey guys - I'll still be around for a while, but I wanted to say thank you for the positive mentions here and for your business over the years! As @ nessa indicated, IMH is committed to building upon RamNode, not absorbing it or tearing it down. The view behind the scenes has been consistent with that message. I genuinely believe our customers are in good hands! Keep an eye out for an announcement email soon, and thanks again!

I agree they should've made an official announcement as soon as it was leaked however I will not judge them based on this alone. Leaks happen all the time not just in this industry. There is the doubt that maybe they would have never announced if the leak didn't happen, but we'll see how it goes in the next few months. Hoping for the best for IMH, Nick, and all RamNode customers.

Phew, we got there. Because that was also the point I was trying to make. Which was never about whether or not InMotion could, or could not, use the RamNode client database to cross-promote other products. The topic is whether RamNode, now under new ownership, should have sent an email to their existing clients to inform them of the change. It seems most people in this thread share my view that they should have done. And the fact they still have not done so is not a great sign. Although I'm not so fast to write them off as some appear to be.

Congratulations !

Hopefully everything stays the same for customers. I wonder if there will be some migrations in data centers if there is any overlapping or not. Happy for Nick as he's come a long ways. I remember from before he started Ramnode with his company before that which he sold and went into starting Ramnode which has been very successful. He will now be able to spend a lot more time with his family and that is always a great thing! Hopefully they keep the good name and service for their clients and it doesn't turn into one of those WT LW things.

This really should have gone out before now. I mean, at this point, why bother? You've let your customers down by not announcing this immediately, both companies

March 7th March 8th March 9th March 11th ................................................................................... ???????????

Putting aside the rudeness, back on topic, please.

Hopefully, Ramnode will really survive this on the long run. Fingers crossed. It wouldn't surprise me if many people would cancel their service and move on. We all know what these acquisitions mean.

It'll be interesting to see how things work out for Ramnode after the year of "no changes" is over. It's difficult to run multiple brands completely separate, when it would be less costly to merge... I'm glad Nick got his exit. It's always great when the selling owner is able to finally realize the success they've dreamed about. (ie: Retirement, spending more time with family, cash to do something else, etc...)

There is a lot of thing that go on and are required before everything is announced at times. Part of the agreement I am sure was transferring IP ranges to the other business. This is how it was all leaked in the first place. I'm sure that Nick put in a lot of work to make sure that his customers would still be in a solid place once sold. I am sure that maybe only 5% of their customers really have seen anything until their notice went out.

Homepage still says:

There should not be any confusion about merging or acquiring since its publicly posted from the LowEnd link; The first thing that Google gives to the word acquire; 1. to come into possession or ownership of; get as one's own. 2. to gain for oneself through one's actions or efforts: to acquire learning. 3. to gain through experience of or exposure to something: an acquired taste. Even without getting into the legal/corporate side of it...merging means to combine, while acquiring means to take away from the source. If Nick stayed on and they said they merged, then that would make sense...but realistically you don't usually see a larger company merging with a smaller company. Not at this level. Maybe to the public, but on paper, it's 51/49 at least.

no , just moved a personal service from Linode to Ramnode, and was happy with the change...

This is garbage. If the deal is signed (it was in early February), your customers have a right to know. Not “when we feel like it” Not “when IP addresses get transferred” When the agreement is made and signed. Again, this was done last month, and nobody has said anything to customers . This is not something that exudes either confidence, or trust in either company

That home page statement...oh dear indeed.

I would agree that things may stay the same, but look at WiredTree. RamNode was the best for unmanaged, and WiredTree was the best for managed. I too used them way back and had zero issues, and only left because I outgrew their offerings. Years later they were sold...and everyone said it went downhill at light speed, as many other buyouts tend to do. Since then, no one speaks about WiredTree, or only has bad things to say about them. I don't even know if they still exist...and just like here, people started to frown on the parent company for destroying a good host, and I believe the parents quality also went down during that time. It's just a trend that usually happens. Anyone who hears the news and makes backups and leaves usually avoids the disaster.

I’ve got to say, this is a very concerning thing, having taken a step back and looked at it . One of the things that attracted me to them ( I spend around $100/month) was the non corporate, independent feel and nature of RamNode . With a sale like this, that will definitely go away I guess I’ll have to start eyeing my options more closely now

Have you ever bought out a large business or any at all? There is far more than just signing paper work to be done. Payment might not have been made until the end of the month we don't know all of the specifics. There is also a lot more work involved in it. We have bought out many businesses over the years and agree that letting clients know is good. However when there is no changes in the back end etc there isn't nearly as much needed to be known. None of us know any details in the sale. Now if they are taking down servers and moving them data centers etc then yes that should be something said right away.

Just read through this thread and tend to agree that InMotionHosting dropped the "communication" ball here with its clients. While we don't know the backend factors involved, only time will tell how this plays out. Here's hoping both firms employees and clients fare well.

Downright damned ridiculous, in fact. Lots of companies are M&A'd and liquidated for customers, IP, what-have-you. Go back to WiredTree. LiquidWeb liquidated it (ha! no pun intended!). Inmotion will keep it "the same" (loose variable term), and "for now". But it won't last. ursa-musculus, I get where you're trying to go with this, but you're stretching it somewhat past reality. The owner/founder isn't the company. But the company without the founder may flounder. The new owner can do whatever they want to it, including dissolve it, liquidate for assets, etc. Again, all said, Inmotion is fine. I'm having an academic discussion, as most hosting M&A are horrid experiences. Years ago, I remember a joke here about a host giving away free fish sticks. Pretty sure that was around the time that Matt Smith became the Doctor. WHT days of yore.

Over the years, I've noticed that many providers who advertise with corporate membership at WHT always sell after some time. It makes me want to avoid choosing providers at WHT who have corporate membership because they always end up selling i.e so that underprice/unrealistic offer you get doesn't last long because the new owner(s) change the whole business model usually. I guess you just enjoy what you get while it lasts until a new owner takes it. You know the bait and switch tactics where they offer crazy unrealistic offers to undercut many other providers to the point where many start raving about them, and they do well. After some time, they remove things, increase pricing, or do both to maximise profit just before they sell for as much as possible. I've seen it with loads of them. WiredTree, InnoHosting, StableHost, VPSLatch and many more. I got a good idea of which ones will sell next, and I bet others know too.

The customers have every right to be notified as soon as the sale is agreed to. This was last month The fact that they tried to hide this for so long , and customers only found out about this because of some “internet detective” is just ridiculous As SOON as those papers were signed (again, last month, if you read the article I linked to), the customers should have been notified . Not any later , and CERTAINLY not via forum post They STILL haven’t sent out a notice through clientarea or made an announcement there

Well, at least they announced it via clientarea 'news'? Still no mass mail though.

Wish them the best of luck.

I hope Nick comes on here to wish everyone well. I've praised Nick many times over the years after moving a key service using one of his VPS for what seems like 10 years. Zero issues, zero downtime, zero anything that would make someone leave. The last few of a breed where you buy it, set it, and never worry...and that says a lot in the unmanaged realm of the many that have come, gone, and crashed badly. RamNode always remained on top. Now...I feel like 2020 just smacked us in the face. There's been zero emails or mention from RamNode. How am I finding out from a WHT newsletter of this...and I'm not a fan of whose hands its going to into. After so many years, the words buyout...migrations....or anything of the sort means perform backups NOW and MOVE. Don't think, BACKUP AND MOVE!!! It's bittersweet. For Nick, moving on, more time with family, travelling, a new company maybe, investments....no on can hate on that. Well done. Just this move feels uneasy. Like I walked in a fine restaurant that's well known for an excellent dining experience, but after walking in, I see plastic seats and a burger & fries menu that's been sunburned since 1984

The announcement sent will use the word "tentative". Flimsy generic excuse. I could say the same thing about using the toilet. (It also has a lot of paperwork involved.) So you approve of lack of transparency, anti-consumerism. Got it. Completely agree. That's how EIG rolled. It's not how quality companies do things. I read about M&A all the time, and only the hosting industry lacks ethics here, backroom hidden deals, try to hide ownership. It's like a satanic cult buying your church without you knowing (but the pastor knew, and said nothing). You might learn only when they raise the rent, sometimes years later.

I can't remember the last time I logged in there until today. I think it's the same letter that was floating around on LET, but my eyes always picks out the key parts; So this happened early February, but quietly mentioned on March 11th...and still only from those who know of this. Aware...nope...not until WHT alerted me was I aware of any of this...and through a post from someone who is not connected to either company. WHT for the Win!!!

You know when you read something you can't believe, and realize it must have happened if mentioned from a valid source. When an advisor was looking over the business plan, did they ever question the $4k for fish sticks?!?!?!?! Hahahaaha.

I’ve been with RamNode since 2014. No bait and switch, and, for the most part, they’ve been rock solid. I have had a few issues, but let’s be honest, I can say that about each and every provider , no matter who runs it . Their offerings are on par with the industry standard , as far as pricing and whatnot. I expect we will see that change , and go up

You sound like you're ready to fight. It's one of those times I don't blame you. You're right in some areas, but I could further support your thoughts...while trying to add water and fuel to this fire. The water. Nick and another employee did come on here and say something, which he could have have just let the news run as is, and leave it alone. The fire. You said this was signed last month...that's not a good look on Ram's part. I did read and don't recall the date...but say the deal was inked Feb 28th...and what was written mentioned talks on the phone, and so forth. That would mean this was in the works from January? December? November? October? At any of those points, customers could have been alerted of a possible sale. Alerted on the intention of the company, and given a choice. But that doesn't happen in order to keep everything running as is for the sale to go through. Any hints would make customers leave, thus the potential buyer backing away. That's before the sale. The sale happened, and as mentioned...still no news. We love when companies tell us things. It's what they're not saying that is the big issue. What else are they not saying? How many companies suddenly become big disasters on here from the information they're not telling their customers.

Oh wow!! I have not been informed about Ramnode got sold to Inmotionhosting. I have only found out through on the forum by now. I'm really disappointed that I have not been told. It don't looks good when you are not telling your customers of the change of the ownership have been make. Well I'm out of this, I have found a long term company that has been around for over 22 years and they haven't been sold. I'm going to use their service to rent their servers and I'm really looking forward to be their customer for many years to come. Good bye Ramnode, thank you for letting me to use your service for the last 3 years as I have enjoyed it.

Damnit, now I want fish sticks... Well, I guess that makes my mind up as to what's for dinner

100% this!!! I found out through Tapatalk, yesterday AM. You’d think BOTH companies would have been ahead of this, or at least mailed their customers and said “Hey, this happened” AFTER it was leaked to LET. Imagine finding out from a forum that your host was sold. What trust was there would be at least slightly worn away

The LET post was made on March 4 This post was made shortly thereafter, of course They still haven’t made an announcement via the one area all their clients would go to look , or email (another area people would check daily) I only found out about this because Tapatalk notified me of the thread . How many people don’t pay attention to LET or WHT daily?? How long are these companies going to simply ignore their customers who have a right to know this information??? From the LET thread So, the acquisition took place about a month ago . Maybe more. All depends on your definition of “early” This! Again, this erodes trust , quite heavily . For me, outside of the massive trust issues here (like you said, what else are they hiding?), it’s fine . I have no beef with the sale, as long as stuff keeps operating and I have the same amount of downtime (virtually nil) , all’s good For others , though, not so much ; and expectedly so. I mean, let’s just say, for example , a client moved TO RamNode FROM the purchasing company, because the purchasing company treated them like dirt. Don’t they have the right to know about this and get the hell out ASAP? What about that client who’s banned by purchasing company ? Don’t THEY have the right to know this so they can back their crap up and move, before it happens again? In both cases, yes. I’ve stuck with RamNode this long because it feels, as I said earlier, less corporate, more mom and pop (hi, Nick) . This entire sale, and the lack of communication and honesty about it has me, and anyone who’s not bowing down to big corporate , feeling more than a little uneasy about the future

I couldn’t agree more Especially given the business model that RamNode HAD going. The new management, whatever, can say But they already did. What those at InMotion fail to recognize is that RamNode isn’t just about the company. It’s about the clients,the atmosphere, the feel. It’s about how the company has treated its customers since the beginning. That was unique. Now, that is gone. Instead of making that right, InMotion is bringing in goons to attack those that wat accountability, and for this information to be shared. Yes, customers have a right to know who they are doing business with has changed hands . No, they shouldn’t have to login to other forums , or even a website (though at least they did give that notification out) to find this information out You aren’t the only one . Initially, I was going to stick around, just move my backups elsewhere (been looking to do that anyways), but given the lack of respect shown by new “management” at RN, it’s time for a change. Once my credit runs out, I’ll likely be done there. I can’t say this enough. For over 7 years, RamNode has been home to one, or many of, my projects or servers. Just since January 16, I’ve thrown $300+ their way. Sad to see that end, but I certainly can’t fault Nick for wanting an exit

Lets see how all this goes. Only 2 outcomes, either RamNode will go down in history as one of the best budget VPS providers or InMotion will up the notch & treat RamNode as cash cow, keeping everything stable.

Sounds like my cell/mobile provider. They're become the masters of bait and switch. Its quite disgusting how they treat customers...and sadly because there's a small handful to chose from, they're all the same. Every plan has a name or price change almost every 6 months to year. Removing features while increasing prices...I've lost count on the stories I have on that. It's to the point that when an option is removed without the customer knowing...the person you speak to...if they're recently hired will have no idea what the service was.

That is my exact feelings about it. Years ago if there ever was an issue, Nick would communicate what was happening and what to expect...and followed through every time. From then, zero issues. That's something I rarely see. That the EIG story for many some years ago. Watching people get upset with A and move to B, not knowing B is the same owner/company, or run to C only for C to be about out by the same company. Like you can run run from them or run full speed into them. I only found out by the WHT newsletter headline of Exchange Server being hacked. Then my eye noticed RamNode sold. This was just yesterday on the 7th, but LET had this on the 4th...and only addressed it because the news was leaked. In the trading world, that would have tanked a stocked. A company or owner shouldn't be chasing their own news...they should be releasing it. How was this news leaked? March 4th LET knew about it March 6th An article was written about it March 7th PR News release March 7th WHT Newsletter March 8th ....................... Customers still have not been informed. People complaining about prices...least of the worry. If it went up a dollar or two, that's nothing. Everything goes up. Netflix has gone over the years, and people still pay for it. I would just be concerned if while reading an article somewhere else, I notice Yahoo bought Netflix, and I now have to pay through a Yahoo service...and Netflix said nothing about this. Yahoo can barely do emails right...so why would I want to give them my money. Two reasons for instant cancellation...which hurts when you like the company and they gave you no reason to ever cancel.

I'm excited to see what happens with this acquisition, but I will admit I'm a bit nervous that they didn't announce it when they reached a definitive agreement. We'll see how this goes within the next year or so.

Granted. That's a very well-phrased way of putting my point in real-world context, so thank you for replying in a way that's moved my understanding forwards. Says Mr Whiting.

Yes, RAMNode has been excellent, but now they sold, which is my point. Time will tell how it goes. Pickaweb was sold to Miss Group recently, who also own Stablehost. Inception Hosting sold to Clouvider. A lot going on lately.

Looks like their plan is to continue to operate as nothing happens until it was leaked? At least based on nessa's last message maybe? But just make sure all of you guys have your backup in placed already

Actually mass mail will have negative impression to me but I hate emails, as if the new owners just search and excuse to go around spam regulation / rules, just freshly got access to the customer database and making attempt for a quick gain from their investment - to reactivate some of the old customers and sell something more to those with active services (especially if around the news (by design - then do not intent it) is some sort of promo offer on the website - no need to include promo it in the mail to have plausible deniability and to force mail recipients to go to the site you just include a link to extend news of the acquisition with read more ) Mail should be send only at if they cancel service, change price etc... if service is unchanged client area news is sufficient

Still no official announcement (email) from RamNode. Let's see how this plays out.

After so many years, and me still a rookie compared to others on here...I've been through a handful of companies that did send out emails to their clients. Only problem...those emails were all lies. Great News (never is) Were upgrading to newer servers (were moving you to our EIG farm, no upgrade) The transition will be smooth (emails will go missing, websites may go missing, good luck) Your Truly, The Host (we got your money, welcome to EIG) Sadly even without dragging EIG into this, or whatever the name of the other company is that bought them out....like copying a VHS to a VHS that was already a copy of a copy...even the well known have fallen apart. Only one host I've seen a buyout actually improved their network and operation. One out of 50...that's a good ratio, right ?

Businesses are not required to advise their customers when they are sold or acquired, at least give them the chance to prove that their service won't degrade.

Partially agree with you Daniel. But definitely not with this bit. This is something I tried to explain the other day. The new owners do not have access to the database. But RamNode does. And RamNode always did. So there's a case to be made (based on the highly engaged, personal, communicative culture of the company) that the company that is RamNode.com should email its active clients to let them know that the company is now owned by someone else. I do agree with you here, however. That email should just communicate this one thing. If they use it for marketing, or create the impression that they used an important update as a mere excuse for some marketing, that would backfire big time. But again, this is a relational, company-feel-and-culture, thing, not a legal thing. Which brings me to this: I also don't agree here. WHMCS lest clients indicate whether they wish to receive marketing emails or only transactional ones. If a client has chosen to receive marketing information, then the company is at liberty to send such, provided the usual methods to unsubscribe are included etc. Your point here does raise a question. Is an update on the ownership the kind of email that may be sent to people who have not opted in to marketing emails because its content is sufficiently essential, or is this something that you could miss out on if you've opted out of non-service emails. There's a case to be made both ways, but I don't agree that all clients should only receive service notification emails.

At this point, it’s safe to say there won’t be . They don’t care about customer notification, that much is clear I will say that something behind the scenes must have changed . Outgoing transfer of 200 gigs took a week to process. Kept getting “killed” at the sender (ramnode) end , having to restart over and over again Additionally, they are misinforming people about cloud “credit”, claiming that policy forbids them from reimbursing that and always has , but this wasn’t the case a year ago , as I had to have them refund that then . When I pushed , they refunded it though

Something tells me that will be the end of RAMNode, as I know it. This time, I hope to be wrong.

I don't think that's true, and could possibly open up legal issues. If I buy a service from you, and something goes wrong that creates a legal issue that results in either going to court, or requires a lessor form of legal services, If at that point you mention you are no longer the owner, that could lead to another case of hiding information, and any judge would instantly start to questioning your credibility...which could be even worse of looking further into you to see what else you're not mentioning. Legally if we exchanged money, than that exchange is between the current owner at that moment. That move alone could also become a tax issue. How can you give them a chance to prove the service won't degrade when the business already lied to you. The service is the least important element at that point. How do you know you paid a fair and honest price, or the product or service was not what it should be...which you could only then know by comparing it after?

I mean when customer not choose to receive a news letter... customers that choose can be additionally notified in it Yes you communicate one thing Ramode enterprise entity got new owners, but then you clever push read more (link to the client area news and around it there is promo offers) or include read more about new owner on the Ramnode about us page and there is Inmotion marketing message (About Us is always a marketing message) + some promo offers in the side bars or even i a big header slider (non intentional just by web stie design - trust us) Even in a countries that have strict regulations and fines for spam they will get away with that if it is structured that way, but will leave unpleasant taste with people like me which after morning coffee with unpleasant feeling open their Thunderbird and read emails

At least they could change the information on the company section of their website. It's not even saying the name of the company.