[ANNOUNCEMENT] Big Changes, Same Team. Better Hardware.

crunchbits

Below is announcement that is also outbound to all customers via e-mail. It's going to take quite awhile to chew through all accounts--so I'm also posting for visibility.

---

TL;DR:
Crunchbits is now part of Synteq Digital. You’ll see faster infrastructure, quicker hardware turnaround, and better support—with the same team behind it all.

Changes Coming Soon™:

DIY VPS revamp — newer, faster hardware rolling out this month. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Storage VPS upgrade — more performance, same pricing. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Cloud GPU improvements — same pricing tiers, better hardware. Existing customers get first access if they wish to migrate.

---

We’re excited to announce that Crunchbits has joined Synteq Digital, a fast-growing and experienced team focused on building owned data center and HPC infrastructure.

This partnership gives us the scale, tooling, and support to accelerate everything we’ve been building—while keeping the same fast, affordable, no-BS service that got us here in the first place.
And yes: our entire team is staying. Same people.

Here’s what’s already in motion:

1. DIY VPS: Major Upgrade
   We’re revamping our entire DIY VPS platform with newer, faster nodes and improved architecture.
   No price changes to your existing service. This is a pure performance lift for everyone currently on the platform.

2. Storage VPS: Performance Bump
   We’re upgrading storage VPS performance across all tiers.
   No pricing changes, and existing services will be offered priority migration paths.

3. Cloud GPU: Better Options, Same Pricing
   We’re rolling out upgraded GPU infrastructure behind the scenes.
   Pricing tiers will remain the same, but due to limited inventory, existing customers get first dibs if they wish to migrate.

Thank you for putting your trust in us. We built Crunchbits with one mission: to serve our customers with honesty, speed, and reliability. That mission stays the same.

It’s been an honor. One we’re proud to keep earning every day.

— The Crunchbits Team

SocksAreComfortable

Just got this email:

TL;DR:Crunchbits is now part of Synteq Digital. You’ll see faster infrastructure, quicker hardware turnaround, and better support—with the same team behind it all.
Changes Coming Soon™:

DIY VPS revamp — newer, faster hardware rolling out this month. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Storage VPS upgrade — more performance, same pricing. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Cloud GPU improvements — same pricing tiers, better hardware. Existing customers get first access if they wish to migrate.

We’re excited to announce that Crunchbits has joined Synteq Digital, a fast-growing and experienced team focused on building owned data center and HPC infrastructure.
This partnership gives us the scale, tooling, and support to accelerate everything we’ve been building—while keeping the same fast, affordable, no-BS service that got us here in the first place.And yes: our entire team is staying. Same people.
Here’s what’s already in motion:

1. DIY VPS: Major Upgrade
We’re revamping our entire DIY VPS platform with newer, faster nodes and improved architecture.No price changes to your existing service. This is a pure performance lift for everyone currently on the platform.

2. Storage VPS: Performance Bump
We’re upgrading storage VPS performance across all tiers.No pricing changes, and existing services will be offered priority migration paths.

3. Cloud GPU: Better Options, Same Pricing
We’re rolling out upgraded GPU infrastructure behind the scenes.Pricing tiers will remain the same, but due to limited inventory, existing customers get first dibs if they wish to migrate.

Thank you for putting your trust in us. We built Crunchbits with one mission: to serve our customers with honesty, speed, and reliability. That mission stays the same.
It’s been an honor. One we’re proud to keep earning every day.
— The Crunchbits Team

Found this article as well about it: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/synteq-digital-announces-acquisition-of-crunchbits-accelerating-its-expansion-into-high-performance-computing-data-center-services--solutions-302447388.html?tc=eml_cleartime

Jab

Corporate overlord, rip our 7$/yr deals.

Good luck however!

terrorgen

What's the plan for VDS?

yoursunny

What's the plan for Crankbis sub-brand?

crunchbits

@terrorgen said:
What's the plan for VDS?

6146 --> 6246 (already live and have been getting beat on for about a week verifying new chassis/settings).
Ryzen TBD but looking like EPYC Turin with high clocks.

coo

@crunchbits said:

@terrorgen said:
What's the plan for VDS?

6146 --> 6246 (already live and have been getting beat on for about a week verifying new chassis/settings).
Ryzen TBD but looking like EPYC Turin with high clocks.

Congratulations 👏
So all winners get epyc turin chickens? 😁
Will you still have permission to do unsustainable deals?

Hertonis

Oh another deadpooled acquired host

crunchbits

@coo said:

@crunchbits said:

@terrorgen said:
What's the plan for VDS?

6146 --> 6246 (already live and have been getting beat on for about a week verifying new chassis/settings).
Ryzen TBD but looking like EPYC Turin with high clocks.

Congratulations 👏
So all winners get epyc turin chickens? 😁
Will you still have permission to do unsustainable deals?

Yes. I expect a bit more fun with some of it as I get increased amounts of hardware that is still very capable being pushed downstream.

AuroraZero

Wish I had known Eric I would have thrown my hat in the ring.

Anagram

High clocks? Is this old mining hardware? Sounds like a good arrangement.

crunchbits

@Anagram said:
High clocks? Is this old mining hardware? Sounds like a good arrangement.

If you can run a VPS on old bitcoin asics I would agree

Anagram

Things have changed since my day

imok

I'm happy for @crunchbits owners.
I'm sad for @crunchbits users.

cybertech

awesome. what kinda upgrade for storage?

Wonder_Woman

Congratulations, @crunchbits!

crunchbits

@imok said:
I'm happy for @crunchbits owners.
I'm sad for @crunchbits users.

I think you have it backwards.

@cybertech said:
awesome. what kinda upgrade for storage?

CPUs and platform, RAM (speed / amount*), SSD-->NVMe, chassis/cooling, and serviceability.

short_dot

As a new customer of crunchbits, I can only hope for the best.

Congrats to the team!

Astride3961

Are all VPS hardware upgraded? What about VDS?

legendary

Ok, let's distill bullshit:

• Who's the owner of the company? Crunchy daddy or someone else?
• I care no for "team does not change" if owner is not the same. New owner in the blink of an eye can retire whole crew if ROI is not met;
• Since ROI is the king, how long after "partnership" (wtf with the wording? Does the acquisition now is "parthership") status quo is held? That digit should be written in acquisition document;

These questions would greatly help to plan migration away, until shit hits the fan. And it will hit the fan rather sooner than latter (yep, I'am a doomer type).

Brueggus

@crunchbits What's your plan for those who are affected by your announcement back in November ("Important Update on Yearly/Promotional VPS Plans") and still have a service in their account which hasn't been migrated yet?

skorous

@legendary said:

And it will hit the fan rather sooner than latter (yep, I'am a doomer type).

You? Nnoooo... You've always been such a ray of sunshine. < /s >

caracal

Anyone else think this is all doom and gloom?

AuroraZero

@caracal said:
Anyone else think this is all doom and gloom?

Nah I have seem some acquisitions over the years work for the better for clients. Only time will tell and I am happy @crunchbits did not leave customers, and staff in the lurch and found a solution instead of just dumping it all.

crunchbits

@legendary said:
Ok, let's distill bullshit:

• Who's the owner of the company? Crunchy daddy or someone else?
• I care no for "team does not change" if owner is not the same. New owner in the blink of an eye can retire whole crew if ROI is not met;
• Since ROI is the king, how long after "partnership" (wtf with the wording? Does the acquisition now is "parthership") status quo is held? That digit should be written in acquisition document;

These questions would greatly help to plan migration away, until shit hits the fan. And it will hit the fan rather sooner than latter (yep, I'am a doomer type).

1. Owner: Synteq, exactly as stated in first line of "bullshit".

2. If ROI is not met, I would also fire whole crew. This doesn't/didn't change. If anything, there will be more of an allowance to test/expand certain product lines that otherwise were not prioritized specifically due to me being quite strict about where the dollars were going because there were less of them to spread simultaneously. Will lead to better pre-emptive hardware supply procurement and healthier hardware ecosystem internally. New owner firing everyone who built what they just acquired and was specifically brought on to expand and direct the entirety of that side of business would be a very complex way of setting money on fire. They could have just skipped the acquisition part when gasoline is under $3/gallon here now.

3. I can't even understand what you're saying about status quo held, digit be written, and acquisition document but I think you're asking for me to disclose specifics of a contract that I'm not legally allowed to disclose. So: no?

@Brueggus said:
@crunchbits What's your plan for those who are affected by your announcement back in November ("Important Update on Yearly/Promotional VPS Plans") and still have a service in their account which hasn't been migrated yet?

We've been holding onto stuff longer than I wanted, mainly because these transactions can take a lot longer to fully flesh out than anticipated or told. A lot of third parties involved, moving parts, etc even if both primary parties are fully in agreement for months. What's happening is instead of migrating twice, we've been holding to migrate those customers once and to avoid any issues on disclosures and reps/warranties for our side. So in short: if you were a yearly customer that wasn't disallowed for abuse/similar reasons from being migrated to our normal VPS--that is still happening. You're just sort of skipping one tier of upgrades and will end up on the newest gear like all VMs. With the public announcement out and certain things that were administratively 'on hold' for us done, I'm expecting work to continue on this asap and be done by end of month.

crunchbits

@AuroraZero said:

@caracal said:
Anyone else think this is all doom and gloom?

Nah I have seem some acquisitions over the years work for the better for clients. Only time will tell and I am happy @crunchbits did not leave customers, and staff in the lurch and found a solution instead of just dumping it all.

I had huge concerns over this knowing how many of the acquisitions go for customers after the fact. I can't go into very specific details (at least not yet), but protecting existing customers was a major factor in how I made this decision. The entire team is extremely aligned towards continuing growth and success. This wasn't a 'golden parachute' moment.

Anyone with a bit of experience in the field probably has a clue as to how much capital is poured into a business like this, at extremely high risk and with pretty brutal working hours as a startup. My "immediate" ROI would have been significantly better if I just purchased S&P 500 ETF from the date of forming Crunchbits and played video games/slept all day.

A big portion was that my entire team stays and we're shaping entirety of the enterprise side of business from scratch, but better supported. These are things that are going to be 2-5 year plans (think infrastructure) which only serve to cementing our competitiveness and agility much longer into the future in ways that would not have been possible solo.

My name isn't hidden, many people from LE* communities have met me in person, and I still put a very high value on a handshake. I've made quite a few legitimate personal friends in the space and don't plan to go anywhere.

caracal

@crunchbits said: handshake

perfect promo code

all the best to you and your team in addition to the parent company! @crunchbits

got to say you're fielding all the questions well.

crunchbits

@caracal said:

@crunchbits said: handshake

perfect promo code

all the best to you and your team in addition to the parent company! @crunchbits

got to say you're fielding all the questions well.

I didn't want to do it "in the dark" so to speak, so I tried to get posts out as soon as I reasonably could to all accounts/forums/etc right after I could confirm their PR was live. I expect (rightfully) to be asked difficult questions. Internally: pretty excited for what I know we're rolling out and going to have capacity to do.

My main goal and concern is to try and let existing customers know how much I/we appreciate them and to reassure them that the core of who/what we do isn't changing. It's easy to field when it's what you truly believe. It would have been a lot more lucrative and simple for me to just exit. This is nearly the opposite--the main difference being that my time can pivot back towards what I do better and away from required-but-ugh sorts of business tasks that I do poorly.

terrorgen

I don't blame people asking hard questions in an unfriendly manner. This community had been dinged before by people who looked legit, claimed to meet community members in person, provided great deals, great vibes, then suddenly deadpooled.

Of course you seem to now have more capital and plans to expand so you are less likely to be the next (ahem) N**** (ahem) B****.

crunchbits

@terrorgen said:
claimed to meet community members in person

The only ones who have managed to skirt me so far is @FAT32 and @FrankZ

I'm patient, though.

Chievo

Congrats ! Keep the good work ! Changes could be always used to improve everything and enhance it somehow. Just take it easy and well which is the roadmap that you have in mind? May be for the near future 1-2 years which is the target for the company?

bliss

The last offer I miss is $11.69. Will there be any storage like 1TB offers soon? Thank you.

SocksAreComfortable

Appreciate the candid and detailed answers to the questions, even the less friendly ones. Like many of us I'm sure, I, too, have been burned by mergers and acquisitions where either prices drastically increased, service quality plummeted, details were unexpectedly changed, etc., and it of course happens more often for LE providers. But @crunchbits is regularly suggested, has been great in my experience, and was even voted best provider somewheregreen out there, so I guess I should go into this with only a small amount of skepticism!

I do wish there were a few LE providers that I could snag great deals on which would be A. recurring and B. from companies where they (independently) last a few years, so I don't have to change my setup so often, but I guess that's part of the package for LE prices, eh? (100% asking for suggestions here)

One random non-serious complaint: why is it that anytime one of these happens, it's always the more generic corporate-sounding name that buys out the more unique sounding name? lol...

legendary

@crunchbits said:

@legendary said:
Ok, let's distill bullshit:

• Who's the owner of the company? Crunchy daddy or someone else?
• I care no for "team does not change" if owner is not the same. New owner in the blink of an eye can retire whole crew if ROI is not met;
• Since ROI is the king, how long after "partnership" (wtf with the wording? Does the acquisition now is "parthership") status quo is held? That digit should be written in acquisition document;

These questions would greatly help to plan migration away, until shit hits the fan. And it will hit the fan rather sooner than latter (yep, I'am a doomer type).

1. Owner: Synteq, exactly as stated in first line of "bullshit".

2. If ROI is not met, I would also fire whole crew. This doesn't/didn't change. If anything, there will be more of an allowance to test/expand certain product lines that otherwise were not prioritized specifically due to me being quite strict about where the dollars were going because there were less of them to spread simultaneously. Will lead to better pre-emptive hardware supply procurement and healthier hardware ecosystem internally. New owner firing everyone who built what they just acquired and was specifically brought on to expand and direct the entirety of that side of business would be a very complex way of setting money on fire. They could have just skipped the acquisition part when gasoline is under $3/gallon here now.

3. I can't even understand what you're saying about status quo held, digit be written, and acquisition document but I think you're asking for me to disclose specifics of a contract that I'm not legally allowed to disclose. So: no?

@Brueggus said:
@crunchbits What's your plan for those who are affected by your announcement back in November ("Important Update on Yearly/Promotional VPS Plans") and still have a service in their account which hasn't been migrated yet?

We've been holding onto stuff longer than I wanted, mainly because these transactions can take a lot longer to fully flesh out than anticipated or told. A lot of third parties involved, moving parts, etc even if both primary parties are fully in agreement for months. What's happening is instead of migrating twice, we've been holding to migrate those customers once and to avoid any issues on disclosures and reps/warranties for our side. So in short: if you were a yearly customer that wasn't disallowed for abuse/similar reasons from being migrated to our normal VPS--that is still happening. You're just sort of skipping one tier of upgrades and will end up on the newest gear like all VMs. With the public announcement out and certain things that were administratively 'on hold' for us done, I'm expecting work to continue on this asap and be done by end of month.

“Status quo” means no price increase. This is the main concern. Or new owner is ok with low end niche and B2B focus is out of the question?

crunchbits

@legendary said:
“Status quo” means no price increase. This is the main concern. Or new owner is ok with low end niche and B2B focus is out of the question?

TL;DR No price increase.

---

Understood. I thought I answered right in the top of announcement but re-reading it can be a little ambiguous. Any existing service is unchanged in price. You will be going for a ride to newer hardware, unchanged otherwise. That is part of my way of thanking loyal customers. There will be some of you who came from Yearly VPS at $5-22/yr that now have those identical specs at that same price on the newest hardware we have and I will continue to honor those commitments to you.

Why? My justification is simple: my "marketing spend" is routed directly back into long-term customers versus Google/Meta/other. Providers have discussions about this internally often, but I've just found that for our size and what I expect: I get absolutely no value out of those kinds of paid advertisements. $1000 into Adwords would deliver us 0-1 sales and a massive influx of junk (imo: fake) traffic. Eating $1000 in 'advertising cost' discounting a few hundred special yearlies? Significantly better for all involved.

It is less directly implicit and I won't harass you to do it, but when we get a true customer word-of-mouth recommendation on forums, reddit, e-mail, etc the value is immense in both transactional and personal affirmation of what we're doing for you is working.

As of right now I have no plans to change any pricing but we will likely institute a change in billing terms to certain extremely low-cost monthly products due to all of our transactional processors creeping the costs up over time to the point that we're losing a very significant percentage of each tiny monthly payment to third parties. I still haven't fully decided how to best do this to be fair to existing customers but protect us moving forward. I have a good idea, but we can eat it for another month or three and take our time rolling that out. This was planned well before any acquisition and was not part of any agreement/requirement of acquisition in any way. To be completely blunt, my directive from Synteq was simple: "Do what you've been doing, but more.". They're bringing a lot more of the B2B approach to products that are unlikely to ever even be explicitly advertised on the website. They agree also with my assessment that Saturday's hobbyist is Monday's Senior IT Engineer at Acme, Inc.

I had a long-term existing friendship with some founding members of Synteq. This wasn't a blind solicitation to some strangers. They have a very strong idea of what they're building (and getting), and likewise is true on my side.

I do hesitate to say "no price increase" flat out. There will be some changes, for example: RTX 5070's are coming to replace RTX 3070's and will not be the same price (nor the same class of product). We'll also have something I would consider equal/better coming to fill the same price target that the 3070's had, but it's never 1:1 perfect for every use-case. We also have staged a bunch of instant-deploy dedicated servers that are likely to be less expensive than anything we've offered before (spec-to-spec), but might be more expensive than a single dedi I've rented at some point in the past if you don't need the extra SSDs or bandwidth.

@SocksAreComfortable said:
Appreciate the candid and detailed answers to the questions, even the less friendly ones. Like many of us I'm sure, I, too, have been burned by mergers and acquisitions where either prices drastically increased, service quality plummeted, details were unexpectedly changed, etc., and it of course happens more often for LE providers. But @crunchbits is regularly suggested, has been great in my experience, and was even voted best provider somewheregreen out there, so I guess I should go into this with only a small amount of skepticism!

I do wish there were a few LE providers that I could snag great deals on which would be A. recurring and B. from companies where they (independently) last a few years, so I don't have to change my setup so often, but I guess that's part of the package for LE prices, eh? (100% asking for suggestions here)

One random non-serious complaint: why is it that anytime one of these happens, it's always the more generic corporate-sounding name that buys out the more unique sounding name? lol...

Skepticism is healthy, and encouraged. I make mistakes and LE* detectives have caught, informed, and let me correct. There is a level of common courtesy I'd appreciate (and reciprocate) but if I can't answer tough questions in front of all of you then I'd start to question my own due diligence process and wonder what else I might have missed.

Providers that I think have strong, morally wealthy, and capable leaders who are still independent (to my knowledge) and on LES:
@MannDude @skhron @funkypenguin @AlexBarakov @InfraCharm @jarland @host_c @rsk (In no order, I'm positive I missed some)

Re: Name, let's just say two of us agree on that and there's some ambiguity here being decided If you get the .com, .net, and .org should default win IMO.

yoursunny

@crunchbits said:
we will likely institute a change in billing terms to certain extremely low-cost monthly products due to all of our transactional processors creeping the costs up over time to the point that we're losing a very significant percentage of each tiny monthly payment to third parties. I still haven't fully decided how to best do this to be fair to existing customers but protect us moving forward.

Exhibit D
Starting July 1, 2025, a small Administrative Fee will be applied to all invoices going forward.
This helps us contribute to streamline our financial and support operations while maintaining service qualify.

PayPal Checkout merchant fee is 3.49% plus $0.49.
Thus, it's fair to assess a fee of 49 cents per invoice, while you absorb the
3.49% into list price.

crunchbits

@yoursunny said:

@crunchbits said:
we will likely institute a change in billing terms to certain extremely low-cost monthly products due to all of our transactional processors creeping the costs up over time to the point that we're losing a very significant percentage of each tiny monthly payment to third parties. I still haven't fully decided how to best do this to be fair to existing customers but protect us moving forward.

Exhibit D
Starting July 1, 2025, a small Administrative Fee will be applied to all invoices going forward.
This helps us contribute to streamline our financial and support operations while maintaining service qualify.

PayPal Checkout merchant fee is 3.49% plus $0.49.
Thus, it's fair to assess a fee of 49 cents per invoice, while you absorb the
3.49% into list price.

I think someone before us already tried that approach.

havoc

@crunchbits - will credits roll forward onto new platform? Think I've still got 20 bucks on there

crunchbits

@havoc said:
@crunchbits - will credits roll forward onto new platform? Think I've still got 20 bucks on there

Yep. No changes for now--but credits would 100% stay/transfer.

rcy026

@SocksAreComfortable said:
I do wish there were a few LE providers that I could snag great deals on which would be A. recurring and B. from companies where they (independently) last a few years, so I don't have to change my setup so often, but I guess that's part of the package for LE prices, eh? (100% asking for suggestions here)

I've had exactly the same kind of thoughts for years, but I guess it's kind of a catch 22 thing.
If a lowend provider is stable, reliable, provide good value for money and still manages to make a profit, it kind of goes without saying that it will be a successful business. A successful business will of course be an attractive target for acquisitions or mergers. Small, successful lowend providers are bought by bigger companies and are no longer lowend, or they grow organically and leave the lowend market anyway. Kind of sucks, but I guess that's just the way it works.

I've always been a fan of Crunchbits. I like the name, I like the website, I like their products and the owner seems like a seriously nice guy. The services I have with them have been nothing but flawless and at very competitive prices, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about. But, I've been burned by similar scenarios before so I did just verify my offsite backups and made sure the services I have at Crunchbit can be moved without too much hassle. I hope it will not come to that but as I said, I've been burned before and will not risk it again.
As long as things stay somewhat the same I will continue being a big fan of Crunchbits and I'm not canceling any service yet, but better safe than sorry.

zgato

Honestly, not even worried and happy for Eric and their whole team on this acquisition, I truly hope and believe it will bring good stuff

I've only heard good things about Eric and personally trust him, even though I've only had some brief talks.
Still have 2 promo VMs (1 of them already migrated to the new infra) and those have been running flawlessly, and have only been getting upgrades over the last few months (better transit providers, more specs for the same exact price, ...)

I understand everyone's concern, since I've also went through companies being sold and then deadpooling or whatever. But I would also see that as an opportunity to upgrade your setup and rely on multiple LE* providers rather than one or two
I've learnt that the hard way over the last couple of years, and that's why I rely on many LE* providers rather than a selected few. It can usually also be cheaper

@crunchbits hope everything goes well, and you will also always have a loyal customer here

legendary

Out of curiosity - does anyone knows company which was sold and became more successful than the original version? I would like to sip some positivity.

someTom

@legendary said:
Out of curiosity - does anyone knows company which was sold and became more successful than the original version? I would like to sip some positivity.

I know of a failed Dating Platform that resurfaced as an amateur video sharing site and was then sold to a Search Engine. I think they became more successful after that.

YouTube

rcy026

@legendary said:
Out of curiosity - does anyone knows company which was sold and became more successful than the original version? I would like to sip some positivity.

That's almost impossible to say since they usually just disappear into the new owner.
To mention one example Inception Hosting was acquired by Clouvider. Clouvider exists and seems to do well but it's hard to say how much of that is from Inception Hosting.

imok

@legendary said:
Out of curiosity - does anyone knows company which was sold and became more successful than the original version? I would like to sip some positivity.

Will Crunchbits be the first to survive investor pressure, or will it be killed or pushed out of the LE market?

Level One Servers, sold to Pure Voltage, is keeping the support and prices as usual... yet. But PV was already in the LE market.

localhost

Yes

crunchbits

@rcy026 said:

@legendary said:
Out of curiosity - does anyone knows company which was sold and became more successful than the original version? I would like to sip some positivity.

That's almost impossible to say since they usually just disappear into the new owner.
To mention one example Inception Hosting was acquired by Clouvider. Clouvider exists and seems to do well but it's hard to say how much of that is from Inception Hosting.

I think hard to gauge as well, as these items normally become part of a larger portfolio. One thing I considered heavily was the type of acquirer.

• Passive portfolio of only hosting companies? Probably not for me. I can be fairly hard-headed about what I think works and the direction I want things to go. Not interested in getting skinned for parts and tossed into the trash.
• VC firm? Not for me. I come from a background of being extremely hands-on, it's the only way I personally know how to find some level of success and create value. I went to a college that specialized in finance, but I don't speak banker lingo. I needed a crash course in linked-o-phonics because to me every buzzword you can think of in the space = "Oh, you mean a Xeon Dedi? An EPYC with GPUs?". Not sexy when you break some lofty new toy down into the same crusty old server.
• Bigger Private Company? Potential. Specifically because my goal is to continue what we're doing, but bigger. To build cool shit, but with an economic purpose. It would come down to team, trust, many long talks and in person visits, and ultimately a contract and position that gives me some reasonable assurances of the above options not being likely.

At some point it's not likely to ever know 100% (at least publicly) if the acquired entity is more successful because they're all rolling up to the same pool internally. Maybe the acquired entity was doing very well, and some other portion of the business dragged things down. I can think of 2 things that allow me to sleep well at night:
1. I think I would get yelled at if I asked about $7 promos--in a good way, a: "You're in charge. Why are you asking me how to do your job?"
2. A more experienced in-place team for handling all sorts of back-end tasks like administrative and finance tasks. A team with more experience and definitely useful input on customer care, customer follow-up, work flow, and efficiency. A team that was genuinely excited to also "build cool shit". Not faceless, already end-customer facing and very successful in their own lanes.

@imok said:

@legendary said:
Out of curiosity - does anyone knows company which was sold and became more successful than the original version? I would like to sip some positivity.

Will Crunchbits be the first to survive investor pressure, or will it be killed or pushed out of the LE market?

Level One Servers, sold to Pure Voltage, is keeping the support and prices as usual... yet. But PV was already in the LE market.

I don't see any reason to ever not participate in the LE market. That said, I haven't done an actual "sales thread" on any LE* forum for over a year. I stopped that way before any acquisition talks, but I plan to (and have been) active in flash sales/megathreads/custom configs. Part of it is also a consideration for other hosts/users and not wanting to 'spam' boards. I've actually had a few chats about this, but I don't want to flood the market with $7/y deals because I feel like that is akin to 'walking through the door, then shutting it behind me' and also just spammy. I have 2 live LE*-facing locations. We all know where they are. Don't need to promote deadpool offerings there every month or two at the expense of downstreams/other new hosts. The reality of it is that we do also need to build/sell non-LE targeted items as well (dedis, LTOs, GPUs, etc).

Also just more fun to be surprised by a tag in a random Easter thread and then @FAT32 throws together an impromptu art contest and I end up just giving out complete deadpool deals (but limited).

_MS_

@imok said:

@legendary said:
Out of curiosity - does anyone knows company which was sold and became more successful than the original version? I would like to sip some positivity.

Will Crunchbits be the first to survive investor pressure, or will it be killed or pushed out of the LE market?

Level One Servers, sold to Pure Voltage, is keeping the support and prices as usual... yet. But PV was already in the LE market.

Gigagost (Terrahost) is the only player who played this game right.

Astride3961

I think the bigger concern is if the management changes decisions in the future and doesn't honor the current pricing.

@crunchbits said: I think I would get yelled at if I asked about $7 promos

We'll make your job easier and ask for $3/year deals instead

gomi

Congratulations to Crunchbits! You guys are an awesome company, and I constantly recommend you to others! I really hope to keep using your services. Also, hope my annual-plan VPS migration goes smoothly, just like the support ticket outlined. Oh, and I noticed in the post above that some users have already finished their migrations—is that true? (Excited to know! 😄)

(By the way, I'm quite interested in the news mention about being "forged through a unique career path spanning military service in the U.S. Marine Corps" that was mentioned.)

host_c

@crunchbits said: Below is announcement that is also outbound to all customers via e-mail. It's going to take quite awhile to chew through all accounts--so I'm also posting for visibility.

TL;DR:
Crunchbits is now part of Synteq Digital. You’ll see faster infrastructure, quicker hardware turnaround, and better support—with the >same team behind it all.

Changes Coming Soon™:

DIY VPS revamp — newer, faster hardware rolling out this month. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Storage VPS upgrade — more performance, same pricing. All existing customers will be upgraded free of charge.

Cloud GPU improvements — same pricing tiers, better hardware. Existing customers get first access if they wish to migrate.

...................

Sorry bro for being late here, just wanted to say

Keep up the good work

Cheers, HOST-C