It's just big fish becoming bigger. :shaky:
I would predict they will keep everything the same.
Just like they didn't change anything about 1&1 (letting them have the people who want site builders & "plain" hosting running all the big magazine ads & keeping the Planet as a high-end server provider.
It's like the automakers and all the other companies consolidating these days. They will probably keep it as "low key" as possible and let each company continue to go for the market "niche" they have always had.
Works out good for The Planet, I have wondered how many of their servers that were last year's "high end" got shipped to the 1&1 facilities to become "shared" or similar servers so they don't lose money as the clients who can afford the "power" at The Planet can order the very latest high powered servers and pay the high prices.
Would make sense; no company with that many boxes wants anything sitting idle to let a "power" customer pay for the boxes at The Planet then move a box 2-3 years old to 1&1 and let them run a few more years as a VPS server or shared box depending on the specs. :rolleyes2
When you are talking about companies with thousands of boxes they want as much ROI once a box is paid for before a box has to be "retired" and The Planet has always seemed to go for "high end" type customers so if they end up with a few boxes that aren't being used and don't fit the current sales "line up" at The Planet I bet they move them to 1&1 where the server specs make no difference and run them until they aren't worth running anymore (need major repairs and are too old to be worth it when you can pop in another high power box from the Planet that was "top of the line" 2 years ago but is "old news" for high-end customers now... partially driven by how fast the server market keeps changing with new CPU's and such changing so rapidly.
(SAS drives, SATAIII drives, USB3, faster & more powerful... a 2-3 year old server would barely make the bottom end of the line up at The Planet but handle 500 sites at 1&1 and let them keep those prices down.
I don't know where Soft Layer would fit in but I'm sure all the CEO's & bookkeepers do. :shh:
They will probably let all the companies keep marketing to their segment of the market and use the capacity to make things more profitable so the fewest boxes are ever sitting idle.
Just today's world; especially with this economy and tough-times; people with money to buy can get deals from people who are tired of the business and want to retire to a beach somewhere and not have to worry about what the economy does.
(ALL IMHO)
