Littlejohn & Co. has acquired Hostway Corporation, a provider of hosted information technology services.
Hostway is a multinational web hosting and technology infrastructure company that provides individuals, small- to medium-sized businesses and large corporations with email and hosting services for web sites, databases and business applications. Hostway serves more than 500,000 customers worldwide. Major clients include: Coca-Cola, Disney, McGraw-Hill, Sony/BMG, Wrigley Company, Hershey’s, Fox News Channel, JVC, Bank of Montreal, Tribune Company, Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, and the Campbell Soup Company. Hostway was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Chicago (www.hostway.com).
“Tremendous demand for traditional outsourced IT solutions and emerging demand for Software and Platform as a Service is fueling the growth of the hosting industry. Hostway serves as a great platform to capitalize on this opportunity due to its unique hosting platform, world class customer service and robust data center infrastructure,” said Michael Kaplan, Managing Director of Littlejohn & Co. “We look forward to working with Hostway’s management to accelerate growth by continued investment in Hostway’s technology platform, enhancing its sales and marketing efforts and selectively making acquisitions targeted at enhancing the customer experience.”
Littlejohn & Co. makes control and non-control investments in middle-market companies that are undergoing a fundamental change in capital structure, strategy, operations or growth. The firm is currently investing from Littlejohn Fund IV which has over $1.3 billion in capital commitments. Littlejohn & Co. is based in Greenwich, CT (www.littlejohnllc.com).
“We are extremely pleased to partner with Littlejohn and gain access to additional resources to help us grow our managed, cloud and web hosting businesses,” said John Martis, President of Hostway. “The Littlejohn team has deep experience growing businesses across a variety of industries and can help us further differentiate our offerings and build on our customer base.”
Cowen and Company (www.cowen.com) acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Littlejohn on the transaction and DH Capital (www.dhcapital.com) acted as exclusive financial advisor to Hostway.
© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 12-17-13
