11 ms·

GoDaddy Buys Media Temple

141 points by recusancy 13y ago

josefresco 13y ago
For all those here suggestion small alternate hosts, accompanied by their anecdotal positive experience remember that your favorite host is probably one fat check away from selling out just like MT. In fact, most web hosting models are built from the ground up to eventually get swallowed (acquired) but a larger hosting fish. I've been through several hosting buyouts with my clients over the last 13 years and none have ended well. Even after the dust settles, the "New Company" almost always loses it's original formula for success and with it, it's original customers. Lessons learned: Host with bigger hosts less likely to be snapped up. Diversify your client hosting providers so one botched buyout will not sink you.
- rwhitman 13y ago
  Yea exactly. You just can't win with a small host provider. They will always get acquired. Always. Though I did get the sense that MT was large enough to stay independent. Really uncomfortable feeling knowing its GoDaddy now
- ohashi 13y ago
  Another problem with small hosts is small sample size. Hosting is an odd product that everything is good until it's not. Many/most people never really have any sort of 'experience' with their hosting company. Which ends up as a default neutral/positive opinion. But it's really when there's some sort of incident that the real quality of a company comes out. Until a host is big enough, there generally aren't enough incidents and data points to say much about them.
thejosh 13y ago
Wonder how much for? And that 88% of their "technical audience" will like the GoDaddy purchase?
recusancy 13y ago
Media Temple's brand destroyed by one press release.
- mtMattNL 13y ago
  Matt from (mt) here. Sorry that you feel that way, but we assure everybody that it's a good thing. We're not making any major changes at the company, and we're going to have 10 times the resources to make better products.
  - tyleregeto 13y ago
    I think for many people its a moral choice. It doesn't mater how it affects MediaTemple as a service, they'll just plain refuse to support the parent company, and good on them for that.
  - rwhitman 13y ago
    Bullshit.
    - pc86 13y ago
      Thank you for the thoughtful contribution.
  - anu_gupta 13y ago
    It's not even about what GoDaddy plans to do with (mt). It's more about how lots of people feel about doing business with GoDaddy.
  - uptown 13y ago
    What you may not appreciate is that the GoDaddy brand is toxic. Whether it's your advertising, your support for SOPA, the check-out maze, or the ex-CEO killing elephants - it's a brand that many informed consumers have chosen not to do business with.
    - harvestmoon 13y ago
thebiglebrewski 13y ago
I totally agree with @recusancy, this is the worst news I've heard all day...I absolutely despise GoDaddy and everything they represent. Who should I switch to? Just have some WordPress site hosted on MediaTemple mostly...
- acallaghan 13y ago
  Digital Ocean by a country mile, they come with a Wordpress image ready set-up for you, will cost $5 a month for an excellent webserver. I host 4 different Rails sites, and a Wordpress Network of 7 sites there, all running v well. My referral link: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=1ecc21b66a25 https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=1ecc21b66a25 Edit: Note, I don't run all of those sites on the same server, that'd be silly.
  - atourgates 13y ago
    If you're looking for WP hosting without the need to manage a server, we've been having a good experience with Synthesis' managed Wordpress hosting: http://websynthesis.com/ http://websynthesis.com/ The only downside is that since their pricing is based on the number of domains/installs ($27 for a single domain/install), it'll get pricy for multiple small WP sites on a single account.
    - acallaghan 13y ago
      Yeah is a little pricey, but may be what OP was looking for. The probably don't allow a WP network with multiple other sites CNAMEd to subdomains, which is how I'm set up. It's a little sticky to setup, but you have a free wordpress.org afterwards effectively, which is great for all my friend's and family's pet projects and mini sites.
  - thenomad 13y ago
    Interesting, I didn't know that. What's the WP image based off? (OS, web server, reverse proxies, etc)
    - 13y ago
jcomis 13y ago
ugh. I don't like this. I liked MT. I just don't like GoDaddy and the way they do business (example: their ceo shooting elephants, their ads, the way they squat domains, they supported SOPA, etc) and do not wish to be their customer, ever. Wonder how many people feel the same as I do?
- justindocanto 13y ago
  They have a new CEO who seems to have a much better moral compass, but everything else... in absolute agreement.
chasing 13y ago
April Fools! Wait...
- thebiglebrewski 13y ago
  Seriously, I checked the date...
jmduke 13y ago
Makes sense. GoDaddy's been trying to rebrand pretty heavily, what with the redesign, new marketing push, etc., and the article frames MT as a company that isn't exactly doing great financially. Pretty boggling statistic: GoDaddy has four thousand employees. Twitter has around half that.
- josefresco 13y ago
  Not mind boggling when you realize that GD actually sells stuff. Therefore they have sales, support etc. Twitter while popular, is only now starting to actually sell "stuff" ie advertising. Look at Groupon as an example of real world staffing gone awry.
  - jmduke 13y ago
    Absolutely. I'm not particularly familiar with which of GoDaddy's offerings require high-touch sales (I've used them for domains a couple of times), though I'm sure they exist. Similarly, I'm not gonna be surprised to see a post-IPO Twitter start pumping resources into their sales departments as well. A lot of their high-value partnerships and channels are going to require a little bit more personality than what they've put into the current Twitter Ads offering.
- MartinCron 13y ago
  I didn't even know that GoDaddy was doing a redesign and new marketing push. I went to their site and was happy to see fewer bikini girls. However, in the about us, they still sound like they're trying to be brogrammer central: Like a Stanford dorm room on steroids, our Sunnyvale office is 40,000 square-feet of Bay Area badassery, brimming with some of the biggest brains on the planet, dreaming up digital masterpieces and keeping time in agile sprints.
  - Yhippa 13y ago
    These guys sound like the Hooters of the technology world.
rwhitman 13y ago
I have no love for Media Temple, but have so many client sites there that this really affects me. Just when I thought MT was improving they go and do this. That line about it staying "independent" is total crap. I stupidly got locked into Outright and now a year or so after their acquisition by GoDaddy its now magically "GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping" and they want to link it with my GoDaddy account. Independent my ass. So now GoDaddy has all my business records sitting next to my MT accounts, old domain names etc. Ugh
- eugeneross 13y ago
  There should have been some type of clause when you agreed to sign up with (mt) for a year. If not, you can make a pretty good argument for your money back.
- rhizome 13y ago
  A well-engineered deployment framework and backup regime should let you move sites to new hosts with a minimum of headaches (if not a minimum of time). Heck, an enterprising engineer could probably whip up a third-party site mover that uses some combination of limited DB privs, temporary SSH keys, etc. to move entire domains around. You're right that any "things are gonna stay awesome!" through an acquisition is pipe talk. It's just a lie in an attempt to minimize churn.
  - rwhitman 13y ago
    If any of these sites were built using a well-engineered deployment framework, I wouldn't be using a MediaTemple grid account to host them
- ohashi 13y ago
  It's always interesting to hear people talking about trends they see in a web hosting company. The first thing I do is check and see if their experience actually matches what I see in the data. http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/23/mediatemple/ http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/23/mediatemple/ (click 'Trends') I don't see much evidence of 'improving' but it looks fairly stable. It will be very interesting to watch what happens after today though. I've been watching http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/33/asmallorange/ http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/33/asmallorange/ because they are in a similar situation but half a year ahead of MT. They were bought out by EIG (Endurance International Group - which own HostGator, BlueHost, Host Monster, etc) back in March. They've been run independently and their service seems to have improved (cue EIG hate here). It's easy to craft stories, but I always like to see the data.
uptown 13y ago
Anyone have a suggestion for a managed hosting alternative with pricing competitive to MediaTemple?
- rwhitman 13y ago
  The problem is that MT has the best shared host dashboard control panel out there. The grid shared hosting option historically sucked (can't tell you how many fires I've had to fight because of prolonged grid outages) but damn, that slick control panel makes it so easy to spool up a site for a client in a hurry, or set up a new subdomain that it was worth the pain of periodic unannounced downtime. I loved being able to get a site up on MT Grid in 5 mins flat If there is anything thats as easy to cruise through and still reliable, I'd love to hear about it.
  - thebiglebrewski 13y ago
    Right?!
    - justindocanto 13y ago
      I would also love to hear other recommendations as well. Through the years, I've never found a better user experience then MT.
  - thenomad 13y ago
    Bytemark's Symbiosis OS makes it extremely easy to spool up new sites or new domains/subdomains. Give 'em a look.
  - lstamour 13y ago
    DreamHost's is a bit long in the tooth now, but at least it's not cPanel! :)
nhangen 13y ago
I am so, so disappointed about this. Really love Media Temple and had been considering moving more of our resources to them. On the other hand, I hate GoDaddy and will absolutely not remain a MT customer. Anyone have a list of good alternatives for reliable semi-managed VPS hosting in the US?
- nwh 13y ago
  Depends how managed you need it, but Digital Ocean have been getting nothing but praise of late. They're incredibly cost effective too.
acallaghan 13y ago
This'll be a good thing if MT's customer service and server tech line up replaces over GoDaddy's, but it won't. I'm afraid GD will just take the customers, move them over to their server and strip MT for assets
mtMattNL 13y ago
I was going to post person by person, but I figured a general post with all the info would be a better option. So here it goes... We're definitely excited about the move. We know GoDaddy may have had a not so stellar reputation in the past, but we're very happy with the changes they've made this year. Along with that, we are very happy to get the funding and resources we need to make bigger and better products. We want to put out better products with the same style and flare, and we can now do it a lot better and a lot faster. Our support isn't changing, products aren't changing, and the only real big change today is that we're getting cake and lunch on the house. Feel free to shoot any questions at me, or check out our weblog for a FAQ http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-godaddy-acquisition/ http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-goda...
- rkudeshi 13y ago
  I keep seeing allusions to this new, improved GoDaddy...can you provide some details about this? I haven't heard anything about it since moving my domains away from them after the SOPA/elephant stuff. I know MediaTemple is a good company and wouldn't sell to GoDaddy without reason, so hopefully you can provide some solid justification for staying with you. The current FAQ/blog post don't address GoDaddy's toxic reputation in the tech community at all.
  - chrisj16 13y ago
    Are you sure about that? There's an answer to the very question "What about GoDaddy’s reputation in the tech community?" "They have overhauled their leadership team and attracted tech talent from the best-of-the-best. We love 'the new GoDaddy' that CEO Blake Irving and his team have created, especially their new approach with advertising, product focus and UX." -- http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-godaddy-acquisition/ http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-goda... GoDaddy appears to be a very different company than it was a year ago, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
- MartinCron 13y ago
  I admire your courage and honesty to directly engage with the GoDaddy detractors (of which I am one, sorry). Maybe you can prove us all wrong and help improve them from within.
codereflection 13y ago
I wonder how this is going to affect the jquery.com site, which has been hosted on MT forever. I have a strong hatred for GoDaddy, and will never consider Media Temple for any of their services now. Sorry MT guys, I just hate GoDaddy THAT much.
- mtMattNL 13y ago
  I get where the strong feelings come from, but time does change things (be it better or worse). We think they are going in the right direction, and we're going to work on getting even better.
  - codereflection 13y ago
    It's good that you guys are at least seeing these reactions right up front, so you can hopefully make some headway in restoring faith. There have been many such acquisitions that the public frowned upon, but ended up not being so bad after all (for example, when Salesforce bought Heroku). Best of luck to you.
  - ISeemToBeAVerb 13y ago
    The thing is, you are who you associate yourself with. Until GoDaddy actually proves they've turned a new leaf, I think you're going to have a hard time convincing your customers (myself included) that this acquisition is about anything other than money. It takes momentous effort to turn around a notoriously bad brand, and with such fierce competition, there will need to be some serious benefits to convince me to stick with MT. Truth be told, if your service is comparable to other services, I'd rather not give my money to a company owned by GoDaddy.
    - mtMattNL 13y ago
      I see where you are coming from, and money is definitely important. That cash flow is going to help us build our staff and our products. We understand the skepticism, but we are working on making things a lot better here.
fowkswe 13y ago
There's an elephant joke to be made here...
rootedbox 13y ago
my godaddy up times are better than my media temple up times..
bbx 13y ago
Media Temple was the first hosting service I remembered the name. It was around 2007, when I started web design. I was immediately fascinated by their brand, their design, and their philosophy. It looked honest and reliable. I actually never had the opportunity to become a customer because I didn't need an American-based server (I live in Europe)... Well... until a month ago. I finally had a project that required a server based in North America. I chose MT quite rapidly, feeling confident about my decision and/or not caring enough to analyze the market. And today, this (not so good) news. GoDaddy has had a very bad press for the last couple of years, and it seems like the philosophy gap between the two companies will be hard to handle. I guess it's just bad timing on my behalf but I'll try to stick to MT for the beginning. Although yesterday I would have indisputably pursued my experience with MT for many years, I will now closely watch any subtle change in their customer policy and probably leave at the first signs of trouble, no matter how slight they can appear.
- larrys 13y ago
  I originally started using MT because it was what Techcrunch used at the time when they started and iirc a few years after.
SmileyKeith 13y ago
I've been using Linode and DigitalOcean with great success if anyone is looking for a recommendation.
- petercooper 13y ago
  This will sound a bit silly but as a customer of both, I gotta confess I'd feel a lot happier if they pledged not to sell out to a company like GoDaddy.. ;-)
justindocanto 13y ago
As somebody who's been chatting with people over at GoDaddy about their upcoming plans to improve their services/ui/support/etc, I've been giving them a chance because it sounds pretty great. However, that fruit has yet to bare so I am 100% not happy with this at all. I'm actually really disappointed/frustrated/mad right now. This was my safe haven away from everything that budget hosts like GoDaddy did, stood for, provided, etc. These kind of acquisitions always starts with "We won't be making any major changes" and then the company pulls a Yahoo and begins to slowly deteriorate. This is the worst news, in regards to my every day business, that I've heard all year. I have 20 clients with DV servers, as well as my own servers and I am now feeling uneasy about this. Also, have we not forgotten the anti-sopa / anti-godaddy coupon codes MediaTemple was giving out when people were bailing from GoDaddy during the SOPA/PIPA uproar? What happened to that? Nooooooo.
slig 13y ago
I was a client in 2007/2008. The server was laggy and I'm pretty sure they overselled their VPSs. Good riddance.
ck2 13y ago
What on earth for?
hieudang9 13y ago
The Lord has a good warrior :( Goodbye MT
ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
"They'll keep things the same and let us run as an independent company" - This is the most told lie during a company acquisition. 1) Media Temple (mt) revealed that they have very slow growth. 2) GoDaddy buys (mt). Do you think GoDaddy bought (mt) out of the goodness of their hearts? To GoDaddy this is an investment. If they spend $100 million buying your company, they want your company to produce $200+ million back and they'll tinker with whatever they need to to make that happen. 3) GoDaddy sees that (mt) with it's slow growth isn't paying itself off. (and after today's news even slower growth) 4) GoDaddy starts making changes (merging teams, merging products, changing terms, playing with prices and plans) to see an increase in revenue.
ics 13y ago
I predict Media Temple TV ads in 10...9...8... As a long time MT customer (and beta tester), good luck guys! Despite the general sentiments regarding GoDaddy I hope it works out and provides the extra juice for whatever is on the horizon.
antr 13y ago
If I were any of MT/GoDaddy competitors I would launch a campaign/discount to start attracting MT customers not happy with this acquisition.
- vtbose 13y ago
  Surprised that this is not happening quick enough. I know namecheap.com did this very well, with GoDaddy negative press a few years ago.
EA 13y ago
(mt) sent this to their customers: Greetings, I am proud to share some momentous news with you today. GoDaddy, the Internet's largest platform for small businesses, has acquired (mt) Media Temple. We will continue operating as an independent and autonomous company and our mission will remain unchanged. However, new investments from GoDaddy will provide us the necessary resources to strengthen our focus on web professionals and will help accelerate our plans to expand internationally. At Media Temple, we've always been on a mission to provide the highest quality service at the lowest possible price. When I co-founded the company in 1998, I saw an industry that wasn't meeting the needs of web designers all that well. At one extreme, there was expensive and overly-complex dedicated hosting that required customers to over-build their solutions. At the other extreme, there was incredibly cheap "unlimited" hosting that was untrustworthy and lacked class and transparency. At neither end was there a company truly qualified to understand and partner with the creative community. Thanks to incredible customers like you, our model worked out. We've doubled-down on designers and have created a new platform to help people push the outer limits of the web. Now with 225 employees, Media Temple serves 125,000 customers making up more than 1.5 million websites in over 100 countries. We are proud to be one of Los Angeles' original startups, repeatedly recognized as one of the best places to work in the city — and one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. Personally, working with GoDaddy on the acquisition this year has been unexpected, yet incredibly rewarding. Led by new CEO Blake Irving, the GoDaddy leadership team, which now includes Media Temple's President, Russell P. Reeder, is transforming the company with fresh thinking, new advertising, and an inspiring new strategy. It really is impressive, and so is their new mission: "Help small businesses easily start, confidently grow, and successfully run their online ventures." Though our customers have traditionally been very different, both companies have similar priorities of providing excellent service experiences. However, we also understand and respect the vast differences and needs of our respective customer bases. Hence, Media Temple will continue to run as an independent business and is not being integrated into GoDaddy. Our customers should not experience any changes to their service levels, pricing, or the expert support we are known for. We're not moving our servers, and the phone number is not changing. We will remain in Los Angeles and will stay committed to being the most amazing hosting provider possible. In all seriousness, our mission to host great ideas feels like it's just getting started! I am confident that Media Temple has made the right decision and I know the company is only going to get better from here. Please see our website FAQ to understand this news even further. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know at questions@mediatemple.net. Thank you so very much for your passion, your feedback, and your support over the years. Best regards, Demian Sellfors (mt) Media Temple Co-founder @demian_sellfors
jjoe 13y ago
What about your CEO/co-founder Demian Sellfors? Demian’s succession plan has been a long time in the making. In fact, Demian engineered the company’s strategy resulting in this acquisition. About a year and a half ago. Demian handpicked Russell P. Reeder to run the company. Both have been intimately involved with this acquisition. Demian will be shifting his focus to other projects, but his dream for (mt) to be the most trusted company in the world is still very much alive. What about the other co-founder, John Carey? John Carey, (mt)’s co-founder and CFO, is transitioning out of (mt) as part of the acquisition. He has also been intimately involved with the strategy as well. This is something he’s been planning for and thinking about for some time.
- izolate 13y ago
  This is the most revealing part of the press release. The founders wanted to cash out. Let's not pretend this acquisition has everyone's best interests at heart. It only benefits GoDaddy and MT's founders, everyone else gets to witness the end of MT.
  - Tassels 13y ago
    They're sticking with virb. Check out http://blog.virb.com/post/64122176288/big-news-from-virb http://blog.virb.com/post/64122176288/big-news-from-virb
    - mikeleeorg 13y ago
      This right here is the real story, I'm guessing. Can't say I blame them either. They probably wanted to move on and needed a soft landing spot for (mt). So after months of shopping around, GoDaddy perhaps made the sweetest deal. Congrats to Virb and the founders next chapter there! This is the first I've heard of it and it sounds like a pretty neat service. And good luck the team left at (mt) for managing what is going to be quite a storm of negative sentiment and customer departures.
  - jjoe 13y ago
    Not so coincidentally placed at the end of the FAQ. But I'm certain they've both sacrificed a lot throughout the years. That's almost 16 non-stop years of running MT. It's a well deserved break in my opinion.
vhost- 13y ago
GoDaddy has repeatedly blocked my domain transfers, had customer service call and harass me about moving domains out of their control, and didn't listen to a word I said about the elephant scandal when they called me. I still, to this day, get calls from GoDaddy even though my last domain (which was blocked from being transferred for many months) left their hands last year. No way am I ever going to trust them, or any company they own again.
culinandy 13y ago
If you're looking to get out of MT, Check out A2Hosting.com - they've been operating independently since 2003 - great uptime, I have no complaints!
mmuro 13y ago
A bit surprising, but I have no plans to move away from Media Temple, even though I'm not crazy about GoDaddy.
jwenzel 13y ago
Well this blows...
tstoliker 13y ago
Might want to checkout @LiquidWeb. We are offereing $100 free to MT Refugees that are worried bit.ly/1684rii
hckmmt 13y ago
B U L L S H I T
elwell 13y ago
From what I remember, Media Temple went downhill a long time ago.
zOrg-2013 13y ago
Since being in business since 1997, this is my 5th notice of: "...we've be bought & nothing will change...It will be great!..." It's a crap statement from MT. Nearly a lie. However, it will take several months until MT starts to show real singes of GoDaddy infiltration - in my opinion. My experience at MT has been excellent over the last 4 years, & conversely my experience with GoDaddy VPS & Private servers have been horrible, a joke, & expensive - resulting in the loss of several $five $figure accounts for my little company. I've actually MADE great new clients & good money MOVING them off of GoDaddy platforms into my other hosts - MT being the front runner. Is it time to move services? Yes and no. In the short run (like 6 months) it's a 'wait and see' deal. I am going to move most of my 436 websites/clients away from MT over the next year, and keep and hand-full of sites at MT on my DV (vps) just in case the GoDaddy buyout actually works out. I've NEVER experienced a successful buyout as an existing account holder. Message to MT: YOU HAVE BETTER GET THIS GODADDY CRAP RIGHT! You've already lost 50% of the good faith that we as MT clients have. Suggestions for new host to follow on next post. zOrg.
jqueryin 13y ago
The other cool part to this is that Virb was resold back to it's original founder and did not get included in the acquisition. In addition to that, they received a TC article to boot. Well played, sir! http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/virb-spins-out-of-media-temple/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/virb-spins-out-of-media-tem...
systems 13y ago
I have one recommendation, hosting knowledge on hn is really not that great, you should visit webhostingtalk forum for better and more honest discussions on hosting companies and their quality MT is not perceived as a good host on wht ... it usually gets average or below average review ... so I dont know why everyone is talking as if godaddy will bring them down, MT was never a great company And i do believe the MT fellow who is saying this will improve MT, sure it will ... godaddy is by far a bigger and more successful company than MT
jpea 13y ago
Considering that developers are usually the ones that recommend hosting decisions to their clients (since the clients generally have no clue about who to go with), they just chopped off the main artery of their business with this sale. Kudos to the MT founders, but GoDaddy just overpaid for something that might be a skeleton company within a few months.
harishchouhan 13y ago
Funny thing is that I just moved my sites to Media Temple yesterday.
Poundhost 13y ago
We’ll give any MT Customer who is looking for a new hosting provider 25% off any dedicated or cloud server. Visit http://www.poundhost.com http://www.poundhost.com and use voucher code MTREFUGEE at the checkout to get your discount. Contact us: sales@poundhost.com ^RM

141 points by recusancy 13y ago

For all those here suggestion small alternate hosts, accompanied by their anecdotal positive experience remember that your favorite host is probably one fat check away from selling out just like MT. In fact, most web hosting models are built from the ground up to eventually get swallowed (acquired) but a larger hosting fish. I've been through several hosting buyouts with my clients over the last 13 years and none have ended well. Even after the dust settles, the "New Company" almost always loses it's original formula for success and with it, it's original customers. Lessons learned: Host with bigger hosts less likely to be snapped up. Diversify your client hosting providers so one botched buyout will not sink you.

rwhitman 13y ago
Yea exactly. You just can't win with a small host provider. They will always get acquired. Always. Though I did get the sense that MT was large enough to stay independent. Really uncomfortable feeling knowing its GoDaddy now
ohashi 13y ago
Another problem with small hosts is small sample size. Hosting is an odd product that everything is good until it's not. Many/most people never really have any sort of 'experience' with their hosting company. Which ends up as a default neutral/positive opinion. But it's really when there's some sort of incident that the real quality of a company comes out. Until a host is big enough, there generally aren't enough incidents and data points to say much about them.

thejosh 13y ago

Wonder how much for? And that 88% of their "technical audience" will like the GoDaddy purchase?

recusancy 13y ago

Media Temple's brand destroyed by one press release.

mtMattNL 13y ago
Matt from (mt) here. Sorry that you feel that way, but we assure everybody that it's a good thing. We're not making any major changes at the company, and we're going to have 10 times the resources to make better products.
- tyleregeto 13y ago
  I think for many people its a moral choice. It doesn't mater how it affects MediaTemple as a service, they'll just plain refuse to support the parent company, and good on them for that.
- rwhitman 13y ago
  Bullshit.
  - pc86 13y ago
    Thank you for the thoughtful contribution.
- anu_gupta 13y ago
  It's not even about what GoDaddy plans to do with (mt). It's more about how lots of people feel about doing business with GoDaddy.
- uptown 13y ago
  What you may not appreciate is that the GoDaddy brand is toxic. Whether it's your advertising, your support for SOPA, the check-out maze, or the ex-CEO killing elephants - it's a brand that many informed consumers have chosen not to do business with.
  - harvestmoon 13y ago

thebiglebrewski 13y ago

I totally agree with @recusancy, this is the worst news I've heard all day...I absolutely despise GoDaddy and everything they represent. Who should I switch to? Just have some WordPress site hosted on MediaTemple mostly...

acallaghan 13y ago
Digital Ocean by a country mile, they come with a Wordpress image ready set-up for you, will cost $5 a month for an excellent webserver. I host 4 different Rails sites, and a Wordpress Network of 7 sites there, all running v well. My referral link: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=1ecc21b66a25 https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=1ecc21b66a25 Edit: Note, I don't run all of those sites on the same server, that'd be silly.
- atourgates 13y ago
  If you're looking for WP hosting without the need to manage a server, we've been having a good experience with Synthesis' managed Wordpress hosting: http://websynthesis.com/ http://websynthesis.com/ The only downside is that since their pricing is based on the number of domains/installs ($27 for a single domain/install), it'll get pricy for multiple small WP sites on a single account.
  - acallaghan 13y ago
    Yeah is a little pricey, but may be what OP was looking for. The probably don't allow a WP network with multiple other sites CNAMEd to subdomains, which is how I'm set up. It's a little sticky to setup, but you have a free wordpress.org afterwards effectively, which is great for all my friend's and family's pet projects and mini sites.
- thenomad 13y ago
  Interesting, I didn't know that. What's the WP image based off? (OS, web server, reverse proxies, etc)
  - 13y ago

jcomis 13y ago

ugh. I don't like this. I liked MT. I just don't like GoDaddy and the way they do business (example: their ceo shooting elephants, their ads, the way they squat domains, they supported SOPA, etc) and do not wish to be their customer, ever. Wonder how many people feel the same as I do?

justindocanto 13y ago
They have a new CEO who seems to have a much better moral compass, but everything else... in absolute agreement.

chasing 13y ago

April Fools! Wait...

thebiglebrewski 13y ago
Seriously, I checked the date...

jmduke 13y ago

Makes sense. GoDaddy's been trying to rebrand pretty heavily, what with the redesign, new marketing push, etc., and the article frames MT as a company that isn't exactly doing great financially. Pretty boggling statistic: GoDaddy has four thousand employees. Twitter has around half that.

josefresco 13y ago
Not mind boggling when you realize that GD actually sells stuff. Therefore they have sales, support etc. Twitter while popular, is only now starting to actually sell "stuff" ie advertising. Look at Groupon as an example of real world staffing gone awry.
- jmduke 13y ago
  Absolutely. I'm not particularly familiar with which of GoDaddy's offerings require high-touch sales (I've used them for domains a couple of times), though I'm sure they exist. Similarly, I'm not gonna be surprised to see a post-IPO Twitter start pumping resources into their sales departments as well. A lot of their high-value partnerships and channels are going to require a little bit more personality than what they've put into the current Twitter Ads offering.
MartinCron 13y ago
I didn't even know that GoDaddy was doing a redesign and new marketing push. I went to their site and was happy to see fewer bikini girls. However, in the about us, they still sound like they're trying to be brogrammer central: Like a Stanford dorm room on steroids, our Sunnyvale office is 40,000 square-feet of Bay Area badassery, brimming with some of the biggest brains on the planet, dreaming up digital masterpieces and keeping time in agile sprints.
- Yhippa 13y ago
  These guys sound like the Hooters of the technology world.

rwhitman 13y ago

I have no love for Media Temple, but have so many client sites there that this really affects me. Just when I thought MT was improving they go and do this. That line about it staying "independent" is total crap. I stupidly got locked into Outright and now a year or so after their acquisition by GoDaddy its now magically "GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping" and they want to link it with my GoDaddy account. Independent my ass. So now GoDaddy has all my business records sitting next to my MT accounts, old domain names etc. Ugh

eugeneross 13y ago
There should have been some type of clause when you agreed to sign up with (mt) for a year. If not, you can make a pretty good argument for your money back.
rhizome 13y ago
A well-engineered deployment framework and backup regime should let you move sites to new hosts with a minimum of headaches (if not a minimum of time). Heck, an enterprising engineer could probably whip up a third-party site mover that uses some combination of limited DB privs, temporary SSH keys, etc. to move entire domains around. You're right that any "things are gonna stay awesome!" through an acquisition is pipe talk. It's just a lie in an attempt to minimize churn.
- rwhitman 13y ago
  If any of these sites were built using a well-engineered deployment framework, I wouldn't be using a MediaTemple grid account to host them
ohashi 13y ago
It's always interesting to hear people talking about trends they see in a web hosting company. The first thing I do is check and see if their experience actually matches what I see in the data. http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/23/mediatemple/ http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/23/mediatemple/ (click 'Trends') I don't see much evidence of 'improving' but it looks fairly stable. It will be very interesting to watch what happens after today though. I've been watching http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/33/asmallorange/ http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/33/asmallorange/ because they are in a similar situation but half a year ahead of MT. They were bought out by EIG (Endurance International Group - which own HostGator, BlueHost, Host Monster, etc) back in March. They've been run independently and their service seems to have improved (cue EIG hate here). It's easy to craft stories, but I always like to see the data.

uptown 13y ago

Anyone have a suggestion for a managed hosting alternative with pricing competitive to MediaTemple?

rwhitman 13y ago
The problem is that MT has the best shared host dashboard control panel out there. The grid shared hosting option historically sucked (can't tell you how many fires I've had to fight because of prolonged grid outages) but damn, that slick control panel makes it so easy to spool up a site for a client in a hurry, or set up a new subdomain that it was worth the pain of periodic unannounced downtime. I loved being able to get a site up on MT Grid in 5 mins flat If there is anything thats as easy to cruise through and still reliable, I'd love to hear about it.
- thebiglebrewski 13y ago
  Right?!
  - justindocanto 13y ago
    I would also love to hear other recommendations as well. Through the years, I've never found a better user experience then MT.
- thenomad 13y ago
  Bytemark's Symbiosis OS makes it extremely easy to spool up new sites or new domains/subdomains. Give 'em a look.
- lstamour 13y ago
  DreamHost's is a bit long in the tooth now, but at least it's not cPanel! :)

nhangen 13y ago

I am so, so disappointed about this. Really love Media Temple and had been considering moving more of our resources to them. On the other hand, I hate GoDaddy and will absolutely not remain a MT customer. Anyone have a list of good alternatives for reliable semi-managed VPS hosting in the US?

nwh 13y ago
Depends how managed you need it, but Digital Ocean have been getting nothing but praise of late. They're incredibly cost effective too.

acallaghan 13y ago

This'll be a good thing if MT's customer service and server tech line up replaces over GoDaddy's, but it won't. I'm afraid GD will just take the customers, move them over to their server and strip MT for assets

mtMattNL 13y ago

I was going to post person by person, but I figured a general post with all the info would be a better option. So here it goes... We're definitely excited about the move. We know GoDaddy may have had a not so stellar reputation in the past, but we're very happy with the changes they've made this year. Along with that, we are very happy to get the funding and resources we need to make bigger and better products. We want to put out better products with the same style and flare, and we can now do it a lot better and a lot faster. Our support isn't changing, products aren't changing, and the only real big change today is that we're getting cake and lunch on the house. Feel free to shoot any questions at me, or check out our weblog for a FAQ http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-godaddy-acquisition/ http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-goda...

rkudeshi 13y ago
I keep seeing allusions to this new, improved GoDaddy...can you provide some details about this? I haven't heard anything about it since moving my domains away from them after the SOPA/elephant stuff. I know MediaTemple is a good company and wouldn't sell to GoDaddy without reason, so hopefully you can provide some solid justification for staying with you. The current FAQ/blog post don't address GoDaddy's toxic reputation in the tech community at all.
- chrisj16 13y ago
  Are you sure about that? There's an answer to the very question "What about GoDaddy’s reputation in the tech community?" "They have overhauled their leadership team and attracted tech talent from the best-of-the-best. We love 'the new GoDaddy' that CEO Blake Irving and his team have created, especially their new approach with advertising, product focus and UX." -- http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-godaddy-acquisition/ http://weblog.mediatemple.net/2013/10/15/faqs-about-the-goda... GoDaddy appears to be a very different company than it was a year ago, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
MartinCron 13y ago
I admire your courage and honesty to directly engage with the GoDaddy detractors (of which I am one, sorry). Maybe you can prove us all wrong and help improve them from within.

codereflection 13y ago

I wonder how this is going to affect the jquery.com site, which has been hosted on MT forever. I have a strong hatred for GoDaddy, and will never consider Media Temple for any of their services now. Sorry MT guys, I just hate GoDaddy THAT much.

mtMattNL 13y ago
I get where the strong feelings come from, but time does change things (be it better or worse). We think they are going in the right direction, and we're going to work on getting even better.
- codereflection 13y ago
  It's good that you guys are at least seeing these reactions right up front, so you can hopefully make some headway in restoring faith. There have been many such acquisitions that the public frowned upon, but ended up not being so bad after all (for example, when Salesforce bought Heroku). Best of luck to you.
- ISeemToBeAVerb 13y ago
  The thing is, you are who you associate yourself with. Until GoDaddy actually proves they've turned a new leaf, I think you're going to have a hard time convincing your customers (myself included) that this acquisition is about anything other than money. It takes momentous effort to turn around a notoriously bad brand, and with such fierce competition, there will need to be some serious benefits to convince me to stick with MT. Truth be told, if your service is comparable to other services, I'd rather not give my money to a company owned by GoDaddy.
  - mtMattNL 13y ago
    I see where you are coming from, and money is definitely important. That cash flow is going to help us build our staff and our products. We understand the skepticism, but we are working on making things a lot better here.

fowkswe 13y ago

There's an elephant joke to be made here...

rootedbox 13y ago

my godaddy up times are better than my media temple up times..

bbx 13y ago

Media Temple was the first hosting service I remembered the name. It was around 2007, when I started web design. I was immediately fascinated by their brand, their design, and their philosophy. It looked honest and reliable. I actually never had the opportunity to become a customer because I didn't need an American-based server (I live in Europe)... Well... until a month ago. I finally had a project that required a server based in North America. I chose MT quite rapidly, feeling confident about my decision and/or not caring enough to analyze the market. And today, this (not so good) news. GoDaddy has had a very bad press for the last couple of years, and it seems like the philosophy gap between the two companies will be hard to handle. I guess it's just bad timing on my behalf but I'll try to stick to MT for the beginning. Although yesterday I would have indisputably pursued my experience with MT for many years, I will now closely watch any subtle change in their customer policy and probably leave at the first signs of trouble, no matter how slight they can appear.

larrys 13y ago
I originally started using MT because it was what Techcrunch used at the time when they started and iirc a few years after.

SmileyKeith 13y ago

I've been using Linode and DigitalOcean with great success if anyone is looking for a recommendation.

petercooper 13y ago
This will sound a bit silly but as a customer of both, I gotta confess I'd feel a lot happier if they pledged not to sell out to a company like GoDaddy.. ;-)

justindocanto 13y ago

As somebody who's been chatting with people over at GoDaddy about their upcoming plans to improve their services/ui/support/etc, I've been giving them a chance because it sounds pretty great. However, that fruit has yet to bare so I am 100% not happy with this at all. I'm actually really disappointed/frustrated/mad right now. This was my safe haven away from everything that budget hosts like GoDaddy did, stood for, provided, etc. These kind of acquisitions always starts with "We won't be making any major changes" and then the company pulls a Yahoo and begins to slowly deteriorate. This is the worst news, in regards to my every day business, that I've heard all year. I have 20 clients with DV servers, as well as my own servers and I am now feeling uneasy about this. Also, have we not forgotten the anti-sopa / anti-godaddy coupon codes MediaTemple was giving out when people were bailing from GoDaddy during the SOPA/PIPA uproar? What happened to that? Nooooooo.

slig 13y ago

I was a client in 2007/2008. The server was laggy and I'm pretty sure they overselled their VPSs. Good riddance.

ck2 13y ago

What on earth for?

hieudang9 13y ago

The Lord has a good warrior :( Goodbye MT

ChrisNorstrom 13y ago

"They'll keep things the same and let us run as an independent company" - This is the most told lie during a company acquisition. 1) Media Temple (mt) revealed that they have very slow growth. 2) GoDaddy buys (mt). Do you think GoDaddy bought (mt) out of the goodness of their hearts? To GoDaddy this is an investment. If they spend $100 million buying your company, they want your company to produce $200+ million back and they'll tinker with whatever they need to to make that happen. 3) GoDaddy sees that (mt) with it's slow growth isn't paying itself off. (and after today's news even slower growth) 4) GoDaddy starts making changes (merging teams, merging products, changing terms, playing with prices and plans) to see an increase in revenue.

ics 13y ago

I predict Media Temple TV ads in 10...9...8... As a long time MT customer (and beta tester), good luck guys! Despite the general sentiments regarding GoDaddy I hope it works out and provides the extra juice for whatever is on the horizon.

antr 13y ago

If I were any of MT/GoDaddy competitors I would launch a campaign/discount to start attracting MT customers not happy with this acquisition.

vtbose 13y ago
Surprised that this is not happening quick enough. I know namecheap.com did this very well, with GoDaddy negative press a few years ago.

EA 13y ago

(mt) sent this to their customers: Greetings, I am proud to share some momentous news with you today. GoDaddy, the Internet's largest platform for small businesses, has acquired (mt) Media Temple. We will continue operating as an independent and autonomous company and our mission will remain unchanged. However, new investments from GoDaddy will provide us the necessary resources to strengthen our focus on web professionals and will help accelerate our plans to expand internationally. At Media Temple, we've always been on a mission to provide the highest quality service at the lowest possible price. When I co-founded the company in 1998, I saw an industry that wasn't meeting the needs of web designers all that well. At one extreme, there was expensive and overly-complex dedicated hosting that required customers to over-build their solutions. At the other extreme, there was incredibly cheap "unlimited" hosting that was untrustworthy and lacked class and transparency. At neither end was there a company truly qualified to understand and partner with the creative community. Thanks to incredible customers like you, our model worked out. We've doubled-down on designers and have created a new platform to help people push the outer limits of the web. Now with 225 employees, Media Temple serves 125,000 customers making up more than 1.5 million websites in over 100 countries. We are proud to be one of Los Angeles' original startups, repeatedly recognized as one of the best places to work in the city — and one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. Personally, working with GoDaddy on the acquisition this year has been unexpected, yet incredibly rewarding. Led by new CEO Blake Irving, the GoDaddy leadership team, which now includes Media Temple's President, Russell P. Reeder, is transforming the company with fresh thinking, new advertising, and an inspiring new strategy. It really is impressive, and so is their new mission: "Help small businesses easily start, confidently grow, and successfully run their online ventures." Though our customers have traditionally been very different, both companies have similar priorities of providing excellent service experiences. However, we also understand and respect the vast differences and needs of our respective customer bases. Hence, Media Temple will continue to run as an independent business and is not being integrated into GoDaddy. Our customers should not experience any changes to their service levels, pricing, or the expert support we are known for. We're not moving our servers, and the phone number is not changing. We will remain in Los Angeles and will stay committed to being the most amazing hosting provider possible. In all seriousness, our mission to host great ideas feels like it's just getting started! I am confident that Media Temple has made the right decision and I know the company is only going to get better from here. Please see our website FAQ to understand this news even further. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know at questions@mediatemple.net. Thank you so very much for your passion, your feedback, and your support over the years. Best regards, Demian Sellfors (mt) Media Temple Co-founder @demian_sellfors

jjoe 13y ago

What about your CEO/co-founder Demian Sellfors? Demian’s succession plan has been a long time in the making. In fact, Demian engineered the company’s strategy resulting in this acquisition. About a year and a half ago. Demian handpicked Russell P. Reeder to run the company. Both have been intimately involved with this acquisition. Demian will be shifting his focus to other projects, but his dream for (mt) to be the most trusted company in the world is still very much alive. What about the other co-founder, John Carey? John Carey, (mt)’s co-founder and CFO, is transitioning out of (mt) as part of the acquisition. He has also been intimately involved with the strategy as well. This is something he’s been planning for and thinking about for some time.

izolate 13y ago
This is the most revealing part of the press release. The founders wanted to cash out. Let's not pretend this acquisition has everyone's best interests at heart. It only benefits GoDaddy and MT's founders, everyone else gets to witness the end of MT.
- Tassels 13y ago
  They're sticking with virb. Check out http://blog.virb.com/post/64122176288/big-news-from-virb http://blog.virb.com/post/64122176288/big-news-from-virb
  - mikeleeorg 13y ago
    This right here is the real story, I'm guessing. Can't say I blame them either. They probably wanted to move on and needed a soft landing spot for (mt). So after months of shopping around, GoDaddy perhaps made the sweetest deal. Congrats to Virb and the founders next chapter there! This is the first I've heard of it and it sounds like a pretty neat service. And good luck the team left at (mt) for managing what is going to be quite a storm of negative sentiment and customer departures.
- jjoe 13y ago
  Not so coincidentally placed at the end of the FAQ. But I'm certain they've both sacrificed a lot throughout the years. That's almost 16 non-stop years of running MT. It's a well deserved break in my opinion.

vhost- 13y ago

GoDaddy has repeatedly blocked my domain transfers, had customer service call and harass me about moving domains out of their control, and didn't listen to a word I said about the elephant scandal when they called me. I still, to this day, get calls from GoDaddy even though my last domain (which was blocked from being transferred for many months) left their hands last year. No way am I ever going to trust them, or any company they own again.

culinandy 13y ago

If you're looking to get out of MT, Check out A2Hosting.com - they've been operating independently since 2003 - great uptime, I have no complaints!

mmuro 13y ago

A bit surprising, but I have no plans to move away from Media Temple, even though I'm not crazy about GoDaddy.

jwenzel 13y ago

Well this blows...

tstoliker 13y ago

Might want to checkout @LiquidWeb. We are offereing $100 free to MT Refugees that are worried bit.ly/1684rii

hckmmt 13y ago

B U L L S H I T

elwell 13y ago

From what I remember, Media Temple went downhill a long time ago.

zOrg-2013 13y ago

Since being in business since 1997, this is my 5th notice of: "...we've be bought & nothing will change...It will be great!..." It's a crap statement from MT. Nearly a lie. However, it will take several months until MT starts to show real singes of GoDaddy infiltration - in my opinion. My experience at MT has been excellent over the last 4 years, & conversely my experience with GoDaddy VPS & Private servers have been horrible, a joke, & expensive - resulting in the loss of several $five $figure accounts for my little company. I've actually MADE great new clients & good money MOVING them off of GoDaddy platforms into my other hosts - MT being the front runner. Is it time to move services? Yes and no. In the short run (like 6 months) it's a 'wait and see' deal. I am going to move most of my 436 websites/clients away from MT over the next year, and keep and hand-full of sites at MT on my DV (vps) just in case the GoDaddy buyout actually works out. I've NEVER experienced a successful buyout as an existing account holder. Message to MT: YOU HAVE BETTER GET THIS GODADDY CRAP RIGHT! You've already lost 50% of the good faith that we as MT clients have. Suggestions for new host to follow on next post. zOrg.

jqueryin 13y ago

The other cool part to this is that Virb was resold back to it's original founder and did not get included in the acquisition. In addition to that, they received a TC article to boot. Well played, sir! http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/virb-spins-out-of-media-temple/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/virb-spins-out-of-media-tem...

systems 13y ago

I have one recommendation, hosting knowledge on hn is really not that great, you should visit webhostingtalk forum for better and more honest discussions on hosting companies and their quality MT is not perceived as a good host on wht ... it usually gets average or below average review ... so I dont know why everyone is talking as if godaddy will bring them down, MT was never a great company And i do believe the MT fellow who is saying this will improve MT, sure it will ... godaddy is by far a bigger and more successful company than MT

jpea 13y ago

Considering that developers are usually the ones that recommend hosting decisions to their clients (since the clients generally have no clue about who to go with), they just chopped off the main artery of their business with this sale. Kudos to the MT founders, but GoDaddy just overpaid for something that might be a skeleton company within a few months.

harishchouhan 13y ago

Funny thing is that I just moved my sites to Media Temple yesterday.

Poundhost 13y ago

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