Belgian Combell and Dutch hosting company TransIP want to merge

The Dutch hosting company TransIP wants to merge with the Belgian company Combell. That’s what Ali Niknam, the founder of the Dutch company, and Combell-CEO Jonas Dhaenens say to Tweakers. The two companies have already requested permission from the Consumer & Market Authority (ACM).

The two parties submitted a merger notification to the GCM. As a result, there was earlier talk of a takeover by Combell, but according to NikNam, there is no question of a sale. There is a “technical reason” for the fact that this is mentioned on the ACM.

The two companies must apply for approval for the merger, because they must not become too big. If companies become too big, they can hinder competition. Within four weeks, the merger of the two companies should be finalised. Interested parties can respond to the notification to the ACM. That’s only possible this week.

TransIP

TransIP was founded in 2003 by Ali Niknam. Niknam is also known as CEO and founder of the digital bank bunq. In 2016, shares in the hosting party were sold to a Swedish investment company, but a year later Niknam bought those shares back. The reason for this was ‘differences of opinion on the strategy’.

Last year TransIP took over IT-Ernity, a provider of internet solutions such as Proserve, CloudVPS, Signet, VDX, Website Plug and DDS. TransIP then said it was looking for companies with similar objectives, in an attempt to achieve more growth. With the acquisition of IT-Ernity, the position of the hosting company in the Benelux was strengthened and the product range expanded.

Combell was founded in 1999 and, according to LinkedIn, has between two hundred and five hundred employees. Combell also has an office in the Netherlands. The webhoster claims to have over one hundred thousand customers. According to Combell, three out of five Belgian websites are hosted by Combell. In the Netherlands, that would be one in five.