Shock Media, a leading Dutch managed hosting company, attracts Strikwerda Investments to shape its next phase of growth. This partnership will give Shock Media access to knowledge and capital. This will enable Shock Media to accelerate its strong Dutch position into a relevant European player through acquisitions at home and abroad. Hogenhouck m&a assisted shareholder Alain Götz in this transaction.
Rapid growth for Shock Media
Almelo-based Shock Media is the managed hosting specialist for business-critical websites, web shops and (web) applications and was founded in 1999 by Alain Götz. By focusing on the most demanding customers with solutions for complex hosting issues, a leading position has been built up in this niche market. With excellent support and in-depth technical knowledge, customers are optimally advised and supported in achieving their online goals.
Shock Media has grown significantly in recent years and from 2013 has been a continuous winner of the FD Gazellen Award, Het Financieele Dagblad's annual measurement and presentation of the fastest growing companies in the Netherlands. With Strikwerda Investments' investment, Shock Media expects to further scale up and attract new talent.
Hosting for mission-critical environments
Strikwerda Investments is a family investment company that focuses on ambitious, medium-sized and large SMEs and has a strong track-record in the ICT sector. For example, the investor is also majority shareholder in Total Webhosting Solutions (TWS) with which a market-leading position has been created within the traditional web hosting market in recent years. Although "Mass Market Webhosting" is a large market, there is more growth in specialized hosting segments, such as e-commerce hosting and hosting of mission-critical environments. Through previous investments, Strikwerda Investments is already active in this segment. Shock Media will continue to expand this specialty in the coming years and Alain Götz will participate and advise within TWS in addition to his existing role as CEO of Shock Media.
Capital and knowledge to further scale up
Alain Götz: "The collaboration creates a unique opportunity because it creates a platform with a lot of clout, capital and specific knowledge. By working together, Shock Media can further scale up while the customer-oriented culture and approach is fully preserved and will also be secured by the existing management. As a strong financial partner, Strikwerda Investments will enable us to make acquisitions in addition to our organic growth. Shock Media will thereby become the target platform for all specialized and business-critical hosting solutions within TWS. In addition to acquisitions at home and abroad, we will then become an even more attractive employer for scarce Linux talent, for example."
Maintaining team and autonomy
Abe Bakker of Strikwerda Investments: "Shock Media is one of the finest companies in the Netherlands and a jewel within the European hosting market. The company has shown impressive growth in recent years, thanks to its high level of knowledge, customer satisfaction and excellent reputation. We are convinced that we strengthen each other from our different areas of expertise and together we can make another big leap in this attractive market. In our view, the cooperation can only be successful if the strength of Shock Media can be safeguarded, among other things by maintaining team, culture and autonomy.
Our role in the partnership will therefore be to support the management team in continuing the company's business, identity and growth. We are very excited to help Shock Media and its team accelerate its growth even further in the coming years. Together we can build a leading European player from the strong Dutch base. We are therefore looking forward to a successful and pleasant cooperation in realizing the company's further growth strategy."
Never a dull moment
Hogenhouck m&a assisted entrepreneur Alain Götz in this transaction. The transaction team consisted of Rik Stikkelbroeck, Hein Stoops and Daan Zonneveld.
The ambitions to take Shock Media to the very highest level were evident from the very first meeting in 2017. Topics such as entrepreneurial challenges and personal motivations also came up regularly. The growth of Shock Media and the wishes, needs and ambitions of entrepreneur Alain now lead to this next step in his entrepreneurial career. Hogenhouck established the relationship with Strikwerda and led the entire process to arrive at this transaction.
Hein Stoops on this transaction: "When entering into a long-term relationship, it's best to reflect on the initial phase, the choices and ambitions. This now leads to a match that really energizes both parties."
