Online retail organisation The Hut Group has acquired Web Host UK2. The Hut Group, which has headquarters in Northwich, Cheshire, United Kingdom, was established in 2004. The company operates around 100 retail-focused websites including Grow Gorgeous and IdealShape. It has twice been a Sunday Times Profit Track 100 winner, and with 400 million visitors to its sites, two thirds of its revenues are generated from visitors outside the UK. The acquisition of UK2 is intended to drive the company’s expansion plans in international markets. Financial aspects of the deal have not been released although some reports suggest the acquisition cost around £50 million.UK2, which has headquarters in Shoreditch, London, United Kingdom, was established in 1998. Part of the UK2 Group, which has brands in the United States, the company offers a wide range of services including web hosting, dedicated servers, cloud-based Virtual Private Servers (VPS), reseller options and Virtual Private Networks (VPN). UK2 will significantly enhance The Hut Group’s platform and technology capability.
The Hut Group will absorb UK2’s staff giving over 600 employees in total and the acquisition is predicted to generate 1,000 new technology jobs in around three years.
“This is a significant technology investment to support our growth plans and provide a world class proprietary ecommerce platform and infrastructure to increase capacity, speed and resilience for our global customer base,” explained the company’s CEO and founder, Matthew Moulding on the company's blog. “The move will also see UK2 become a core part of our technology proposition, helping us achieve our ambition of becoming a world class platform for technology clients.”
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