Rackspace Sells Cloud Sites Business to Liquid Web

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in May-June 2016.**

On the heels of reports about the impending sale of Rackspace, Liquid Web Monday announced it is purchasing the company’s Cloud Sites business unit.

With the acquisition, Liquid Web, a web hosting and cloud services provider, will grow to about 550 employees and 30,000 customers globally. The company said it plans to invest in the Cloud Sites platform, employees and overall business.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

“With the addition of Cloud Sites, we further our mission to empower web professionals all over the world to create content and commerce without worry, free of problems and devoid of even one bit of hesitation by providing absolutely flawless web hosting,” said Jim Geiger, Liquid Web’s CEO.

The Cloud Sites platform-as-a-service (PaaS) product augments Liquid Web’s portfolio, and adds capabilities to further simplify web hosting and cloud services, the company said. The Cloud Sites platform supports WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, .NET, PHP and other development and production environments.

Nothing will change for the designers, developers and digital agencies currently using the Cloud Sites platform, Liquid Web said.{ad}

“Our No. 1 priority is making this a seamless transition for everyone involved, most importantly our customers and new team members,” Geiger said. “We are committed to investing and growing the current business with plans to have the Cloud Sites team firmly rooted in San Antonio. Our goal is to be a preferred technology employer in San Antonio, while also being an engaged corporate citizen.”

Liquid Web said it will offer all Cloud Sites employees a spot on the Liquid Web team and will keep these employees based in San Antonio with plans to invest in a new facility downtown.

“As Rackspace continues to focus on delivering expertise and Fanatical Support for the world’s leading clouds, and serving more enterprise customers, it made sense for us to sell the Cloud Sites business unit to Liquid Web,” said Matt Bradley, Rackspace’s vice president of corporate development and strategy. “Through the transaction, we are also pleased to welcome Liquid Web to the Rackspace Partner Network as an email reseller.”