VSS Announces Exit Of Structured Capital Investment In Hostway

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), a global private investment firm focused on the information, business services, healthcare IT, education, media and marketing services industries in North America and Europe, today announced a significant realization from the sale of Hostway, a provider of web hosting and global hosting solutions, in which VSS was the lead investor.

“Recently, we closed on an opportunity to bring our market knowledge and experience in web and cloud hosting solutions to a Netherlands-based company called IT-Ernity that provides business critical managed services and shared hosting for SMEs.”

VSS initially invested in Hostway in March 2010 through its VSS Structured Capital II fund, providing $100 million of financing in collaboration with other investors to bolster the company’s growth and development. The sale of Hostway to Littlejohn & Co. marks the company’s next stage of development, positioning the business for future growth.

“Hostway is an excellent example of our continuing commitment to investing in and building lower middle market companies, including in the business services sector where we see attractive investment opportunities in our key markets,” said Jeffrey Stevenson, Managing Partner at VSS. “Recently, we closed on an opportunity to bring our market knowledge and experience in web and cloud hosting solutions to a Netherlands-based company called IT-Ernity that provides business critical managed services and shared hosting for SMEs.”

Headquartered in Chicago, Hostway serves 500,000 customers worldwide. The company was established in 1998 and provides customized managed, cloud, email and web hosting services, with significant concentrations on delivering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions to SMBs. Hostway has a geographically dispersed network of datacenters in North America.

VSS's Structured Capital funds I and II, both top performing mezzanine funds, provide non-control capital to middle market companies to assist with acquisitions, organic growth, product launches, buyouts, recapitalizations and other corporate initiatives. The funds provide business owners with a high degree of structuring flexibility.

About Veronis Suhler Stevenson

Veronis Suhler Stevenson is a leading private investment firm that invests in the information, business services, healthcare IT, education, media and marketing services industries in North America and Europe. VSS provides capital for buyouts, recapitalizations, growth financings and strategic acquisitions to lower middle market companies and management teams with the goal of building companies organically as well as through a focused add-on acquisition program. VSS makes privately-negotiated investments across the capital structure and has the ability to invest in situations requiring control or non-control equity, mezzanine securities and structured equity securities.

Since 1987, VSS has managed six private investment funds with aggregate initial capital commitments totaling over $3 billion, including four equity funds and two structured capital funds. To date, VSS funds have invested in 74 platform companies, which have together completed over 330 add-on acquisitions. The company’s website is www.vss.com.

About Hostway Corporation

Hostway Corporation is a leader in Cloud, Managed, Web and Hybrid Hosting. Hostway delivers reliable, secure, and scalable Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions to over 500,000 customers worldwide. Hostway has emerged as one of the largest cloud hosting and Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers in the world due to the company’s expertise in developing secure, multi-tenant hosting environments and is committed to providing SMBs and large enterprises with cost effective business solutions. Hostway’s core products include Managed Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Web Hosting, and Email and Applications.

Contacts

Veronis Suhler Stevenson
Tanya Dessereau, 212-381-8556
Manager, Marketing and Communications
dessereaut@vss.com
or
Stanton Public Relations & Marketing
Katrin Lieberwirth, +1 646-502-3548
klieberwirth@stantonprm.com