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Fatcow.com -- slaughtered?

April 12, 2005

FatCow sheds weight, sells off assets to Endurance - Albuquerque - MSNBC.com By Clay Holtzman, New Mexico Business Weekly

FatCow Web Hosting, has sold its assets to a Boston area group that says it will retain the local company's technical and marketing workforce.

[L]ate last month, the bulk of FatCow's hardware was moved to Endurance's facilities in Massachusetts. ...

Fewell says FatCow's revenues over the past couple of years grew by about 25 percent annually and from 2003 to 2004, the company saw its profit margin jump from about 4 percent to between 10 and 12 percent.

Between 2001 and 2004, FatCow watched its number of client accounts explode from 4,367 to more than 33,000 -- thanks in part to its $99-a-year flat fee. ...

The Albuquerque Web hosting firm is the most recent of about 20 such companies nationwide that Endurance has purchased since it was formed in 1997.

The brand name, FatCow, will continue to exist because of the equity the name has among its customers and in the region. ... The sale of FatCow's assets included its hardware, customer lists and brands.

I have been a happy customer of fatcow.com for years; I frequently recommend them to students.

This weekend, I had no email or web service from Fatcow for 36-48 hours. I assumed a technical problem; now, from somewhere else, I see it wasn't a problem, it was a business decision. As is the silence that follows -- no word directly from fatcow about this unforgivable interruption of service.

AOL is bouncing my email back with a message that I'm using a known spammer. Great.

What conglomerates like Endurance don't understand is that some customers seek local companies to support. They haven't lost me as a customer (though I imagine they couldn't care less), but they can't buy my goodwill or loyalty -- they have to earn that. Will they? Some official notice is an crucial first step. mjh

Update

New clues. In spite of its mention in the article, I cannot find a website for Endurance. Strange for a company large enough to have acquired 20 others.

AOL's spam warning references "yourhostingaccount.com." That company does have a website and on that website they acknowledge a loss of service over the weekend due to a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. They even apologize profusely. Great -- except that I've never heard of this company and I have found this after a lot of wandering, wondering what they have to do with me or Endurance, and why AOL distrusts them. mjh

System Notice

Over the course of the last few days, many of our customers experienced difficulties with their Web sites and e-mail. We want to convey our sincerest apologies for any service interruptions you may have encountered.