# miniVPS has been sold.



## MartinD (Sep 10, 2015)

```
A few of you that I speak to regularly already know about this but as of this afternoon/evening, it will become official. I had been considering such a move for a while now and felt the time had come to draw a line under this particular project. I can now spend a bit more time with family instead of being glued to a computer screen 24/7.

A big thanks to those of you that made it such a success while I was at the helm. I'm quite sure it will grow even stronger in the years to come.

I've pasted a part-copy of the announcement email below so this community is the first to find out in an official capacity. The email itself will be sent out to all customers later today.

It's been a blast!

Martin


*****************************************************************

Today we have an exciting announcement and good news to bring you.

Effective immediately the MiniVPS and MiniWebHost brands have become part of the growing family of services operated by Astutium Ltd, a leading UK hosting provider based in London, UK.

After many requests for additional virtualisation services and features, as well as alternative domain extensions and new hosting packages, the MiniVPS and MiniWebHost brands have now joined Astutium in order to expand the range of services offered and to provide our customers with enhancements to their hosting experience.

As part of Astutium the MiniVPS and MiniWebHost customers can now access an extended range of services including :

* Broadband network access
* Over 1200 ccTLD and gTLD domain registration types
* High-availability email and web hosting
* Dedicated Minecraft hosting
* OVZ virtual private servers
* KVM and Xen virtual dedicated servers
* Private cloud services
* Managed (and Unmanaged) fully dedicated servers
* London colocation
* IP Transit
* Control Panel licences
and much more

If you cant find the answer you are looking for, please don't hesitate to reach out and contact us for any reason by raising a ticket, dropping us an email or giving us a call.

We want to thank you for your business and we look forward to providing you with reliable service for many years to come.

Sincerely,

Martin Diver
MiniVPS and MiniWebHost
Astutium Ltd
Number One Poultry
London
EC2R 8JR

[URL="https://www.astutium.com/"]https://www.astutium.com[/URL]

Phone (UK): +44 20 3465 2555
Phone (US): +1 607 264 2555
Fax: (UK): +44 20 3475 2666
```


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## MannDude (Sep 10, 2015)

Congratulations on the sale Martin. Hope you get to spend more time with your family.


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## Nick (Sep 10, 2015)

Congratulations Martin. You've done an excellent job building the brand.


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## Licensecart (Sep 10, 2015)

Congrats Martin, a great company to look after your baby, I take it you now work for Astutium and now you can spend the evenings with your family .

They haven't updated the list in 2015 :s http://www.hostacquisitions.co.uk/recent.htm


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## joepie91 (Sep 10, 2015)

Bit of background on Astutium:


Previously called Othello Technology Systems, and there exists a thread on LET about them.
ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement breaches in 2013 and 2015.
Their acquisitions are listed publicly, as mentioned in this thread before, but not updated for 2015.
They acquired a host with issues; it's unclear whether the issues started to exist before or after Othello Technology Systems acquired them.
Note that I'm not making any judgments here, just collecting information.


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## OSTKCabal (Sep 10, 2015)

Congrats, Martin! I hope the change goes smoothly and that your customers/brands are well cared for.


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## MartinD (Sep 10, 2015)

Just to clarify, I didn't sell out to the highest 'bidder' as it were. I sold to the company I felt were best placed to look after the customers as well as they have been so far and maintain or excel the current support level.


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## OSTKCabal (Sep 10, 2015)

MartinD said:


> Just to clarify, I didn't sell out to the highest 'bidder' as it were. I sold to the company I felt were best placed to look after the customers as well as they have been so far and maintain or excel the current support level.



That's good on you, it really is. Unfortunately, I still hold on to my convictions that acquisitions never allow the acquired business(es) to maintain their quality, and generally the movement isn't an improvement. HOWEVER, only time will tell and I'm just spouting.


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## DomainBop (Sep 10, 2015)

> Just to clarify, I didn't sell out to the highest 'bidder' as it were. I sold to the company I felt were best placed to look after the customers as well as they have been so far and maintain or excel the current support level.



Question #1: Has the company's finances (Astutium Ltd) improved since the latest publicly available annual report (2013) was filed which showed an operating loss of £-63.9k, a negative net worth of £-97.1k,  liabilities of £145.8k, and assets of just £6.7k?

Question #2: will you be switching to their AS...i.e. will there be an IP renumbering for existing customers?


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## GIANT_CRAB (Sep 10, 2015)

Hey Martin, congrats! 

Just a quick question, will you still be involved in this company and if yes, what role will you be involved as?

Thanks! =)


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## QuadraNet_Adam (Sep 10, 2015)

I assume the NodeDeploy brand was included in this sale as well? 

Will you be working for Astutium Ltd? Anyhow, congratulations and all the best.


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## DomainBop (Sep 10, 2015)

QuadraNet_Adam said:


> I assume the NodeDeploy brand was included in this sale as well?



NodeDeploy was sold earlier in the year by Xavvo I believe and is now owned by Node Deploy Ltd (company registered in January 2015 http://data.companieshouse.gov.uk/doc/company/09405236 sole director is Samuel P. )


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## QuadraNet_Adam (Sep 10, 2015)

DomainBop said:


> QuadraNet_Adam said:
> 
> 
> > I assume the NodeDeploy brand was included in this sale as well?
> ...


Ah, thanks! I must of missed that. Was there a thread/announcement about it?


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## MartinD (Sep 10, 2015)

> Question #1: Has the company's finances (Astutium Ltd) improved since the latest publicly available annual report (2013) was filed which showed an operating loss of £-63.9k, a negative net worth of £-97.1k,  liabilities of £145.8k, and assets of just £6.7k?
> 
> Question #2: will you be switching to their AS...i.e. will there be an IP renumbering for existing customers?



Q1) You should know that the financial information that's available from CH open accounts has no real bearing on what's actually going on. Aside from that, I'm not a director so wouldn't be privy to that information.

Q2) I won't be switching anything. Also, minivps and miniwebhost has been sold, not Xavvo Ltd. Xavvo holds the IP assets however they are being leased to the new owners so that customers can retain their current IP's.


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## gxbfxvar (Sep 14, 2015)

Looks like there was a quite big increase in service prices. My miniwebhosting.co.uk £18.00/*year* cpanel service was mapped to Astutium's Business-CPanel-1 service, which costs £14.95/*month*. Likewise, my minivps.co.uk £50.00/*year* KVM server was mapped to VDS-KVM-4, which costs £68.40/*month*. I assume that I can continue using my existing services at their old price levels, but spinning up a new identical server will cost a lot more.

While I received excellent service from MartinD and minivps, I'll most likely migrate away from Astutium at some point. Their prices just are too high for hobby purposes.


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## MartinD (Sep 14, 2015)

I can't really comment on that as I'm no longer in control unfortunately.

Feel free to drop me a PM if you have any pressing concerns though.


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## MartinD (Sep 14, 2015)

GIANT_CRAB said:


> Hey Martin, congrats!
> 
> Just a quick question, will you still be involved in this company and if yes, what role will you be involved as?
> 
> Thanks! =)



Nope - I'm now (or shortly will be) and entirely free agent. An unemployed bum as it were.


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## Geek (Sep 14, 2015)

Well executed.  Hope you enjoy some much-deserved R&R!

-John


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## Hxxx (Sep 14, 2015)

Congratulations Martin. Enjoy the life man.


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## MartinD (Sep 15, 2015)

Thanks all.

Spending time doing naff all and being generally bored for a bit.

Have been going for long ass walks with the dog though


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## Geek (Sep 16, 2015)

Quote said:


> doing naff all


I'm guessing this is a British term?


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## MartinD (Sep 17, 2015)

Probably. It's more polite than 'fuck all'


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## Michaeli (Mar 23, 2016)

MartinD said:


> Probably. It's more polite than 'fuck all'



Hi Martin, yust found this thread.. you may not know me personally but I have been using Minivps or what used to be minivps for the last year or so now. 


First I just gotta say, it's abit sad that you've sold the company, but I do appreciate the fact that family does come first.


I must say the customer support over at Astutium is pretty horrible compared to what I was looking for and what your team at minivps offered. Prices been increased, servers going down with no warning or no explanation after they're back up, lack of social media presence, just pretty horrible customer service from what i'm used to. 


Just wanted to post this here as I found this thread when searching for their website before I plan to cancel my subscription and move away.


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## MartinD (Mar 23, 2016)

Hi Michaeli. 


I'm both happy and sad to read this. Over the past few months I've had quite a lot of messages and emails from my (ex) customers saying similar to yourself. It's nice to hear that while I was at the helm, people were happy with the overall service provided. It's sad to see people are now jumping ship because things are going downhill. Not that I blame them at all; some of the stories I've heard really have shocked me. 


Ultimately, I know it's not my fault that these things are happening but it does make me feel somewhat guilty. Having built the business from scratch and now seeing it rot from the inside is a bit soul destroying. I guess all I can say is sorry things haven't worked out as I'd hoped and you've been put in such a position. 


Not really sure what else to say :/


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## markhascole (May 2, 2017)

Nice sharing


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## IWSNetworks (Jan 8, 2018)

Congratulations Martin
Can I ask about the price ?


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## Lee (Jan 14, 2018)

You want him to tell you how much he sold MiniVPS for? I am sure he will tell you that...


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## web-project (Jan 17, 2018)

if you check the dates of posts it was back in Sep 10, 2015


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## Vovaze (Feb 16, 2018)

MartinD said:


> ```
> A few of you that I speak to regularly already know about this but as of this afternoon/evening, it will become official. I had been considering such a move for a while now and felt the time had come to draw a line under this particular project. I can now spend a bit more time with family instead of being glued to a computer screen 24/7.
> 
> A big thanks to those of you that made it such a success while I was at the helm. I'm quite sure it will grow even stronger in the years to come.
> ...



Congratulations Brother. Making effort to make MiniVPS and MiniWebHost larger brands than before.


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## web-project (Feb 16, 2018)

post is so old, pointless even comment anymore.


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## beta_point (Jul 16, 2018)

thanks


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